Hitting a budget that forecast a loss still earned the bonus

Anthony Heldberg joined Rand Transport, a refrigerated freight and cold storage company, in 2002 as a night shift storeperson in Perth, and worked his way up. In 2014 he moved to Adelaide as SA State Manager, responsible for about 150 employees. His contract offered a '$3,400 per month bonus (paid two months in arrears) for achieving the SA state budget', with the first three months guaranteed. After those three months he was never paid it again.

In March 2017 his job was made redundant. Rand paid him five weeks' pay in lieu of notice and 12 weeks' severance. He sued for the bonuses, extra severance under a 2003 policy, damages for not getting reasonable notice, and compensation for being misled about the bonus.

Rand said the bonus depended on the annual budget. Justice White disagreed: a bonus expressed 'per month', paid two months in arrears, with the first three months guaranteed, pointed to the monthly budget. Rand's South Australian budgets forecast a loss every month, so the state could achieve budget while still losing money, as long as the loss was smaller than planned. That happened in ten months, and he was awarded $34,000.

The rest failed. His 2014 contract replaced the earlier ones, so the old severance policy no longer applied. His contract required him to abide by company policies, which brought in the policy manual's notice table, and he had been paid that notice. The judge said six months would have been reasonable notice had the common law rule applied. The claim of being misled failed because he could not show any loss: counting what he went on to earn in a new job after Rand, he was better off than if he had stayed in Perth.