Being suspended doesn’t mean your employer can withhold your bonus without a good reason.

The situation

An employee at a manufacturing company was suspended after a colleague raised a complaint against him, pending an independent investigation. His suspension letter said the suspension was not disciplinary action, and that he would keep his normal contractual benefits. That same day, the company decided to withhold his annual bonus, a bonus his contract described as "entirely at the discretion of the company", because of the ongoing allegations. He had received that bonus every year for 37 years, and there had been no performance concerns for the year it covered.

What the tribunal found

The tribunal held that even a bonus described as entirely discretionary is not an unlimited power. An employer using that discretion has to act rationally: it cannot ignore relevant facts or take irrelevant ones into account. Withholding this bonus was irrational and perverse. The contract only excluded bonus entitlement for someone who had left the company or was under notice, not someone suspended pending an investigation. The suspension itself had been described as a "neutral act" that did not affect normal contractual benefits, and the investigation into the allegations against him had not yet concluded. He was awarded the bonus, plus interest.

A related claim for unlawful deduction of wages over the same bonus failed, because the amount had not been declared or worked out at the time, so it was not yet "wages properly payable". This was one narrow win in an otherwise largely unsuccessful case. His unfair dismissalA legal claim you can bring if your employer dismissed you without a fair reason or without following a fair process. You normally need two years of continuous employment to qualify, though some dismi..., whistleblowingMaking a disclosure about wrongdoing in your workplace, such as a health and safety risk, a criminal act, or a miscarriage of justice. If the disclosure qualifies as protected, the law gives you signi..., and most discrimination claims all failed. One sex discrimination claim, over being refused a return to his pre-pandemic working hours, would have succeeded on its own merits, but he brought it almost three years too late, so under the Equality Act 2010The main piece of legislation protecting employees from discrimination at work. It covers nine protected characteristics including age, disability, sex, race, and religion, and makes it unlawful for a... it was dismissed as out of time.