I have a situation that I would appreciate advice for. Having lost two key employees recently, I agreed to pay incentive bonuses to the remaining employees to maintain out-put rather than taking on new staff. Rather than maintaining the out put, it has steadily fallen off over the last three months. At the end of October, a traditionally quiet time in terms of work coming in, it was financially impossible to pay the full bonus, so I paid 50% of the bonus. I now have a situation where my labour threaten walking off the job.
This is where things get sticky, knowing that the labour contract contains a clause stating that any bonuses paid are solely at the discretion of management, I turned to my contracts and found that the three newest employees do not have signed contracts. What do I do now, and what are the implications.
