Employment law SOS: How absence affects bonus payments

It depends. To establish whether you can legitimately refuse to pay the bonus, you will need to dig out the employee's contract of employment, a copy of the relevant bonus scheme, your sickness policy, staff handbook and any other relevant paperwork. You will want to check what the rules say about eligibility criteria and whether there are specific provisions which govern how a bonus should be calculated when employees are absent on sick leave or on any other absence, such as holiday. You will also need to check custom and practice within your organisation. You will want to treat your employees consistently so as to avoid the risk of grievances, unlawful discrimination or constructive dismissal claims. There may be an implied contractual term that the bonus should be paid to the absent employee if this has always tended to happen in practice. Finally, it is also possible that the absent employee has a disability within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010. If so, you will need to ensure that you do not discriminate unlawfully, for example by refusing to pay the bonus to the disabled employee when you pay it in full to employees who are absent for other reasons. Much will depend on the particular circumstances, but you may need to make reasonable adjustments, for example by revising the employee's targets so that if he hits those revised targets, he remains entitled to the bonus. This is a matter on which you should seek specific tailored advice.