Mr Kevin Okot-Ojok v Polycom (United Kingdom) Limited (in voluntary liquidation) — 2020

Mr Kevin Okot-Ojok brought a single claim for unauthorised deductions from wages arising from commission under Polycom (United Kingdom) Limited's sales incentive arrangements. The tribunal found that his employment contract provided for base salary plus incentive compensation, that the relevant plan was the 2018 Sales Incentive Plan, and that the claimant accepted the plan and the recovery of overpayments by email on 2 October 2018.

The tribunal held that the scheme was an annual target scheme, not a series of quarterly target schemes. The quarterly figures in Appendix A were a guide to progress towards the annual target of £3,000 pro-rated for 2018, and the monthly payments made before year-end were commission advances. On that basis, the respondent's year-end calculation of total commission for 2018 at £4,294 was accepted, reflecting performance at 143.13% of the annual target.

The tribunal also held that the non-recoverable draw payments of £600 in September and October 2018 were properly reconciled at the end of November 2018 against the commission advance then due, producing the November payment of £1,004. It rejected the claimant's case that those amounts were deducted twice, finding that there were two separate reconciliations: one at the end of the draw period and one at year end against total annual entitlement.

For January 2019, the tribunal found the claimant had left employment on 11 January 2019 and had been paid in lieu of notice. It held he was overpaid commission for 20 days of January, calculated at £483.87, because commission accrued day by day and the contract only entitled him to commission while still employed. The respondent was entitled to deduct that overpayment, and the final payment of £1,605.68 in February 2019 was the amount properly payable. The claim was therefore dismissed.