Can employer withoold incentive pay for not agreeing with their incentive plan terms & conditions?

my position is primarily paid through sales & commission plan. Beginning last year the employer requires that we "agree to and sign this document (a terms & condition document) in order to be eligible to be paid from any incentive plan". For the most part I can agree with the document, however there is one line I take issue with. It states "...the participant employee is entitled to payments only based upon sales made and dollars actually received by (employer name) from such sales prior to the last date of employment". If I make a sale today, commission is received by the company at month end and I typically get paid the following month. This is standard. My concern is-if I make a sale on the first of the month, become terminated mid month, and the employer receives payment for all sales at the end of the month, technically they do not have to pay me because the document states they only have to pay me on "sales made AND dollars actually rec'd by employer" "prior to the last day of employment". I discussed this with the company HR last year and while he agreed with me and said "yes that is what it says"..."we typically pay those incentives made while employed"..."this line is there to protect the company" "we've never not paid someone for sales they made". That is all fine and well, but why not restructure the wording to make it clear? Answer was, they won't do that. So if I don't sign, I won't get paid, if I do sign I may not get paid. I am a 15yr+ employee and hate to be difficult/suspicious etc. Last year I simply signed the document but added that I did not agree with "Paragraph X". They either did't notice it or didn't care because I had no issues with receiving incentive. Is there any better way to sign this document than that? Sorry this got long. Thank you for getting to the end!

0 answers  |  asked Jan 29, 2012 5:54 PM [EST]  |  applies to Illinois

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