Reorganisation and moving to a function with historically lower bonus payouts

[WeAllHaveWings]

We have been told our team is moving its reporting line into another part of the organisation. This part of the organisation historically has significantly less bonus payouts that ours. The difference to me personally will be in the region of £1800. We normally get this bonus in October so it pays my annual house insurance,car insurance and covers Xmas and to me is effectively a pay cut.

Bonuses are calculated as a mixture of the functions performance and employee performance, being part of a huge multinational company I have little control over the functions overall performance which is causing the reduced bonus.

We are going to discuss this with HR, and ask for the difference to be given as a pay rise, but does anyone know legally where we stand as bonuses aren't guaranteed?

[daisychain01]

As a general principle, bonus awards can be considered as part of employment contract if the precedent for giving employees a bonus has been set over a number of years.

If your move to a different reporting structure means a loss of £1800, then I presume what you predict you will still get must be a reasonable amount?

I'm not sure HR will buy into the notion of a pay increase because it could potentially mess around with basic salary thresholds of the affected staff, as jobs salaries tend to be set according to the role (content, level of responsibility, skills required) which are often benchmarked / compared with the open market.

They may also be unwilling because it sets what may be perceived as an unhelpful precedent for others to follow suit in the future.