The Labour Court held that a discretionary 2022 bonus was not "properly payable" within the cognisable period under the Payment of Wages Act, as the bonus pool was never funded and any payment would in any event have fallen due after that period.

The Appellant had worked for the Respondent from September 2013 until his employment ended in or about December 2022. He contended that he had been an exemplary employee with more than nine years’ service. Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company in October 2022, he said established employment norms changed suddenly, and employee entitlements were dismantled. He relied particularly on the “fork in the road” email, which required employees to commit to new terms within 46 hours, although he said those terms were unclear. He was dismissed after declining to click “yes” and his systems access was terminated. Separately, he claimed that he was entitled to a 2022 bonus, calculated at 15% of base salary. Although bonuses were normally paid in March, he argued the relevant wrong occurred in late 2022 when the employer decided not to fund the bonus pool.

The Respondent disputed that any bonus had been properly payable to the Appellant during the relevant statutory period. It relied on the terms of the Global Discretionary Bonus Plan, which provided that any bonus was discretionary and depended on the bonus pool being funded. It submitted that relevant performance metrics had not been met in 2022 and that the Compensation Committee had discretion whether to fund or not fund the pool. The Respondent maintained that the parent company decided not to fund the 2022 bonus pool and that no bonus was paid to any staff for that year. It also argued that, even if a bonus had been due, it would not have fallen payable until March 2023. Since the WRC complaint had been lodged on 12 February 2023, March 2023 fell outside the cognisable period. Accordingly, no wages were properly payable within the relevant period.

The Labour Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the Adjudication Officer’s decision. Applying the approach in Marek Balans v Tesco Ireland Limited, the Court first asked whether there were wages properly payable to the employee during the relevant cognisable period. It noted that the complaint had been lodged on 12 February 2023, giving a cognisable period from 13 August 2022 to 12 February 2023. The evidence established that no 2022 bonus had been paid to any staff, that the bonus scheme was discretionary, and that the relevant bonus pool had not been funded. It was also undisputed that, even if the bonus pool had been funded and a bonus had arisen, payment would not have fallen due until March 2023, outside the statutory period. The Appellant had therefore failed to identify wages properly payable during the relevant period. The Payment of Wages claim failed.

Employers should:

1. Ensure that bonus schemes are drafted with precision. If a bonus is discretionary, the contract and scheme rules should say so clearly, identifying who has discretion, what conditions apply, whether performance metrics must be met, whether a bonus pool must be funded, and when any payment falls due.
2. Note that where a bonus is not being paid, employers should preserve the decision-making trail. This includes Compensation Committee minutes, performance metrics, financial rationale, communications to staff, and any parent-company decision not to fund a pool. The employer should be able to show that the decision was made in accordance with the scheme and not as an unlawful deduction from wages already earned and payable.
3. Remember that Payment of Wages claims turn on whether the sum was “properly payable” during the cognisable period. Timing can be decisive. If a bonus would only become payable after the relevant period, or if no entitlement arose because scheme conditions were unmet, the claim may fail. 
   

The full case can be found here:
https://workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2026/april/pwd269.html