Employee sues over ‘disappointing' £10k bonus

Telegraph

7 days ago

A finance worker sued for discrimination after he was 'disappointed' to receive a £10,000 bonus in a year where he worked only 18 days.
Matthew Colliander-Smith had long Covid and was only able to work for 8 per cent of his usual hours in 2022, an employment tribunal heard.
After he received around £185,000 as an annual bonus the previous year, Mr Colliander-Smith, who was a partner at Veritas Asset Management, was 'shocked' to receive a much smaller award following his time off sick.
He suggested he deserved an award closer to £100,000 because his illness made it much harder to do any work, and therefore his effort rather than output should be rewarded.
Veritas eventually agreed to increase that to £40,000 despite Mr Colliander-Smith having been unable to perform the vast majority of his duties.
After a dispute about returning to work which resulted in him having his partnership terminated, he then sued the finance firm for disability discrimination.
'Did little more than send emails'
The tribunal dismissed his claim, ruling that the company was entitled to reduce his bonus given he had been 'almost entirely absent from work' and suggesting that the work he had done amounted to little more than sending emails
The hearing in central London was told Mr Colliander-Smith joined Veritas – which manages around £25 billion worth of funds – in 2011 and became an operating partner in 2015.
In October 2021, he contracted Covid-19 and became 'severly unwell' with symptoms of long Covid, and anxiety. These included mental and physical fatigue and reduced stamina.
As part of his remuneration package, he was entitled to a discretionary bonus, the tribunal heard.
Although he was awarded £185,000 in 2021, his bonus for 2022 was £10,000.
Veritas argued that the decision to award him a comparatively low bonus arose out of the fact that he had not performed any significant work during 2022.
The tribunal was shown a breakdown of the days and hours Mr Colliander-Smith had worked during 2022 which, he said, amounted to roughly 8 per cent of the working days.
Asking for the bonus to be reconsidered, he told bosses: 'Given these unprecedented circumstances, the decision to reduce my fixed profit allocation by -94 per cent year-on-year has left me shocked and disappointed.'
In January, Veritas increased the bonus to £40,000. However, Mr Colliander-Smith believed it should have been boosted to £97,000 instead, the hearing was told.
Over the following months, there was a dispute between the executive and bosses about him returning to work and the role he might perform when he did.
This resulted in a 'stalemate' which led to his partnership being terminated in September 2023, the tribunal was told.
'He worked 18 days of the year'
Mr Colliander-Smith sued Veritas over the bonus and a number of other complaints for disability discrimination, failure to make reasonable adjustments and victimisation. All his claims were dismissed.
Regarding the £10,000 bonus claim, employment judge Emma Webster said: 'The reason for that award was that [he] had done very little work during the previous year. He had been almost entirely absent from work.
'Even on his own analysis he had worked 18 days of the year which amounts to roughly 7.5 per cent of the working days in a year.'
She added: '[He] had not worked for 14 months when [Veritas] awarded him £10,000.
'[Veritas's] reasons are clear and cogent and it was proportionate for them to reward the staff who had been at work that year as opposed to those who had not.'