Mr Paul Nokes v Fidessa Trading UK Limited — 2020

Mr Paul Nokes was employed by Fidessa Trading UK Limited from 1 October 1990 to 13 May 2019. The tribunal found that his contract of employment gave him a contractual entitlement to a yearly profit share bonus, subject to the respondent’s right to review the scheme and amend the percentage payable, but not a discretion to withhold the bonus altogether. It accepted that the HR handbook bonus policy did not apply to his senior manager profit share arrangement, because that policy was directed to personal-performance bonuses and had not been shown to amend his earlier contractual terms.

For 2018, the respondent’s Remuneration Committee recommended a package for Mr Nokes, including a bonus based on 0.47% of internal operating profit with target operating profit of £42.6 million, and he was later sent an undated memo headed "Re: 2018 Package" confirming base pay of £330,000, bonus of £200,220 and total on-target earnings of £560,220. The tribunal found that memo was the contractual notification of the 2018 scheme as it applied to him, and that the later committee recommendation document was not part of the terms communicated to him at the time.

Mr Nokes received three quarterly instalments of the 2018 bonus, but the final quarter, calculated by the respondent’s finance department at £90,834, was not paid. The tribunal found that the respondent delayed variable compensation from February 2019 to April 2019 and then again to May 2019, and that by 2 May 2019 he was told the bonus would only be paid if he agreed to extend his employment until the end of 2019. It also found that he had worked the full 2018 calendar year and had earned the full bonus.

The tribunal rejected the respondent’s reliance on a "good leaver" provision and on the handbook policy as a basis for withholding payment. It held that the good leaver wording related to pro-rating bonuses and conversion of DAB entitlements, neither of which applied to Mr Nokes, and that no express or implied term excluded payment because he had resigned before the delayed payment date. It therefore held that the final quarter of the bonus should have been paid on 15 May 2019, that the non-payment was a deduction from wages within section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and that the complaint was brought in time. The claim succeeded and the respondent was ordered to pay £90,834.