I joined a newly formed private company (Indian arm of a foreign company) in November 2013. I was the first person to join and my reporting was to a VP who was part of the foreign arm. I was responsible for building the complete technical team in India. Almost all administrative, finance and HR related matters were handled by the remote foreign teams.
My offer letter states that I am entitled for a performance bonus of X amount on the condition that I am on the payroll for 6 months.The bonus is linked to individual performance and company performance and at management discretion.
During the year, my technical contributions were appreciated. In addition, I also assisted in many of the setup activities which were also appreciated. As per the company appraisal cycle, I also submitted my performance review in July 2014 for which I did not receive any feedback. Even after August passed there was no discussion on my appraisal. Neither was any bonus discussed for India employees.
Frustrated with the lack of a proper strategy and plan for India operations, I - along with few other senior employees - submitted my resignation in September with a notice period of 1 month as per my offer letter. Few days after my resignation but before my last day at work, the company declared bonus for all employees and gave 100% bonus for all. I was under the impression that my bonus would be part of the final settlement but it was not included. Neither were the others but that was OK since they had not completed 6 months as per the offer letter.
When I contacted HR regarding non-payment of bonus, I got a response that it is not their policy in the foreign arm to pay bonus for employees who have resigned. I replied that this rule is not mentioned in the offer letter or any of the other employment policies that were provided to the employees. But I never received any reply to that email.
Is the company liable to pay me the performance bonus? Can the company deny the bonus stating the above unwritten rule? Even though no one from the management ever communicated verbally or in writing that my performance was below par, can they state that my performance was below par and hence no bonus was paid?
In case the company is not willing to pay, what are my options?
Thanks in advance.
