Financial Year-End Bonus, Am I Eligible?

[BillyB]

Lol! People earning 100-140k getting bonus in shares? Considering how bad bonuses have been this year, thats a joke

I never said deferred bonus was shares. You can defer a cash payment and embed optionality for the payout. It can also be treated on-balance sheet as a deferred charge payable in x years time - the bank is in a win win situation with this as it boosts capital and earns interest.

And I know plenty of VP's who pull in 200-250k in the front office, so you are making wild generalisations that all AVP's and VP's earn 100-140k. It really depends on which function you work in. Back office and developers are two a penny in Singapore and there are always people who can replace them at a moments notice. Good sales people, structurer and traders are harder to replace, so they tend to be locked-in for longer.

Yeah right! Given the way banks are culling traders, these guys have no place to hide atleast technologists can change domain. Do some reading of efinancial careers for reality check

You use efinancial for your golden source? Wow, do you also believe in Father Christmas? A large number of the jobs on there and other SG jobsites are made-up to gather CV's, and there are usually multiple recruiters all posting the same job. Don't take everything at face value......

[the lynx]

We don't even know if OP is in banking arm of the gahmen...

[Wd40]

We don't even know if OP is in banking arm of the gahmen...

May be not. But this is a public forum and for every person that posts here there are thousands others in stealth mode looking for information and the info I provided might help them.

Even for the OP, I just provided him/her a data point of how it works in a particular industry and he/she can take that and make an informed decision rather than just telling go look for the contract, ofcourse everyone knows that, including the OP

[anonDataResearch]

No I'm not in Banking industry.

I'm an expat, I move around pretty much every year because of several different reasons, the document ... I think I might still have, but I'm not sure where it is right now... I'm quite organized with my electronic data but not very good with physical data... I've tried to request for a soft copy of my contract from HR.

Anyway, thanks so much for your inputs, guys. Much appreciated! I'm quite young and don't have much experience. I thought it's similar for singaporean's companies.


Back to the issue, after going back and forth, I've finally talked through with my HR and they told me that although the payout is 15/4/2013, I will still need to work until May to send in my resignation paper, otherwise I will have to return the bonus that they would give me.

[therat]

some company policy - you are not entitle bonus if you are serving notice.
Eg
1 Dec , company announce bonus
31 Dec, bonus will be issue
If you resign any time from 1-31 Dec, you will not get the bonus

[offshoreoildude]

Is the problem the start date in your new job conflicting with your notice period? If you're in an MNC you may be given garden leave the day you resign.

[JR8]

I hope your bonus is at a fixed-rate, because if it's discretionary they have every incentive to cut it right back and use it to reward those who are 'more loyal'.

[Wd40]

It funny, I always thought bonuses are descretionary(atleast it is in Banks, please dont kill me for bringing up banking again )

But I realized that non banking companies have this concept of 13 month salary and I dont think that is considered as bonus. Bonus or variable pay should be based on performance and as an incentive to retain employees till the end of bonus periods. So do company's have fixed bonuses? If that is the case then its only to retain employees until specific period and not really performance driven.

[the lynx]

13th month wage supplement, also known as Annual Wage Supplement (AWS) is always fixed. If you are talking about bonus or profit sharing, then that one is not fixed and subjected to company's performance.

So far, I do not know of any company that gives only AWS and no bonus (also known as profit sharing) as outlined in contracts, although I won't discount for companies that do not give bonuses and cite poor performance as reason.

[therat]

So far, I do not know of any company that gives only AWS and no bonus (also known as profit sharing) as outlined in contracts, although I won't discount for companies that do not give bonuses and cite poor performance as reason.

Oh.. I know..
My ex-company - USA MNC claim that 13mth AWS is bonus and refused to give any more.
They even bond us one year for sending us to USA training. When we ask more about the bond detail, like when the bond start and end, what penalty if break the bond, etc.
HR at USA and HK refused to give and even USA engineering director question us, why you asking this. Are you plan to leave the company?

Anything that is not required by LAW, they will not give or will not give more
Eg
Annual leave fix on 13 days regardless your service year
No Paternity leave because they claim you had annual leave.
No childcare leave because at that time was just recommended not by law.

After the bond completed, almost half of the team left
Another one more year, the office closed down. LOL

Once my USA engineering director interview people, he even claim he like to employ Filipino because they are cheaper then Singaporean or Malaysian or China peopl. Employ one Singaporean or Malaysian or china people, he can employ 2 Filipino engineer.

He even ask the present Filipino staff, do you had any more friend want to come.

[offshoreoildude]

A lot of foreign employers struggle to understand AWS to be honest. The best way I've explained it is; Determine what you want to pay per annum. Divide this by 13 and the first 11 payments on a calendar monthly basis and the last 2 in Dec.

I am not sure what it is but it seems like a colonial hang over from being paid fortnightly (which is 26 times a year) or 4 weekly (which is 13 times a year). In Australia fortnightly pay checks are still common in the lower class.

[sundaymorningstaple]

A lot of foreign employers struggle to understand AWS to be honest. The best way I've explained it is; Determine what you want to pay per annum. Divide this by 13 and the first 11 payments on a calendar monthly basis and the last 2 in Dec.

I am not sure what it is but it seems like a colonial hang over from being paid fortnightly (which is 26 times a year) or 4 weekly (which is 13 times a year). In Australia fortnightly pay checks are still common in the lower class.

That is exactly how it came about. Unfortunately, that has been lost in the ensuing years because the employee is no longer given a choice as to how to be paid. It started because originally employees during the colonial times were paid bi-weekly or 26 times a year. When they went to monthly payrolls, they used 2 bi-weekly payrolls as a basis and the remaining 2 bi-weekly periods were the 13th month (4 weeks). Of course, today nobody thinks in those terms (even the employers don't).

[anonDataResearch]

It funny, I always thought bonuses are descretionary(atleast it is in Banks, please dont kill me for bringing up banking again )

But I realized that non banking companies have this concept of 13 month salary and I dont think that is considered as bonus. Bonus or variable pay should be based on performance and as an incentive to retain employees till the end of bonus periods. So do company's have fixed bonuses? If that is the case then its only to retain employees until specific period and not really performance driven.

hmm thinking of it again making me scared...
1. My contract is ending in late July
2. They sent me a contract renewal offer on March and I declined....

[nutnut]

OP, you want a definite answer, no one can give you that except your contract or your HR department.

But here goes:


You definitely won't be getting your bonus if you resign this week.

There, that was based on absolutely no factual evidence, just a finger in the air guess!

[anonDataResearch]

thanks for all the responses guys, I've followed and listened to all of your advices and found that they're pretty much correct.

I talked with HR, and after going back and forth, they finally told me exactly what I want to know:

If I resign within the month of receiving the bonus, doesn't matter if it's before or after, I will not be receiving them (or have to pay back 100%).