Bonus/maternity

[Payyourownbonus]

I work in an industry where we get a discretionary bonus and it tends to work out as similar amounts going up and down according to the economy.

I went on my second maternity leave and was off for a year which fell equally over 2 bonus years. I received a bonus for each year that was half of the last full year I worked.

The next full year I worked I got the same as the prior year - i.e. 50% of the last full year. I queried with my boss and he claimed I hadn't had my bonus cut when I was on leave and they had been kind enough to give me a full bonus, times are tough etc etc

I left it because I had other things going on at the time but I happened to have a conversation with a colleague (comparable role) who was commenting that their bonus had fallen X% since my pre-maternity bonus, which happens to be half the percentage mine fell.

I feel that they took advantage of me being on maternity leave to effectively halve my bonus. I'm not really sure if there is anything I could do about this but it is starting to weigh on my mind and make me dread going to work.

Is there anything I can do or should I just suck it up? I'm not leaving this job anytime soon.

Bump?

So the bonus is completely unrelated to performance? If there's no rules/guidelines concerning the bonus then I can't see what you can do as they can alter the amount at any time surely?

it isn't performance related but understood that it is a percentage of your salary. From general conversations with my colleagues (same grade) their bonus percentage is double mine and that coincides with my maternity leave (as in I was getting the same percentage as them before i went on maternity leave). The percentage has gone down over the years but no one has had a 50% drop like i had!

Maybe I should mention it to my boss (he is newish and it was under the old boss this happened).

I suppose you are right that as it is discretionary they can just say 'tough that's what you are getting' but it makes me feel a bit sick when i know my colleagues are getting twice and i know it's not because they are better at their jobs than me!