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Fin24 reports that a former executive at Adapt IT has won a four-year fight for commission she earned before resigning but which the software company refused to pay out.
Last week's Cape Town Labour Court decision means Nicola Redelinghuys – now a partner at IBM in Perth, Australia – will receive R500,000 for deals she concluded in 2018. Redelinghuys was a new business development executive at Adapt IT when she tied up a R7.9 million deal with Vivo Energy and a R403,000 deal with Accenture. Her commission was 4.5% as long as the gross profit margin on deals she concluded was at least 40%, meaning she expected to receive R373,000 as revenue began to flow. Three weeks before she left, Redelinghuys wrote to head of operations Seraj Abrahams about options for commission payments, and was shocked when he replied: "It is not possible to be paid … post your last date of employ." She raised the issue with chief operations officer Craig Young, who said she would be paid only R54,511 commission on revenue so far from the Vivo deal. She sent a letter of demand 11 days after leaving the company. In the Labour Court, Abrahams testified that Redelinghuys had a continuing role in projects even after she had concluded a deal, something she denied. Judge Robert Lagrange said in his ruling that Redelinghuys's "alleged project delivery role" was never raised while she worked for Adapt IT, and was not mentioned by Abrahams or Young in correspondence shortly before her departure as a reason for withholding commission. Abrahams also testified that the gross profit achieved in both projects fell short of the 40% required to earn a commission, but Redelinghuys said his calculations included expenses that were not part of the original costings. Lagrange ruled that Adapt IT must pay Redelinghuys R373,000, plus annual interest of 10.5% calculated from 31 January 2020, and her legal costs, so bringing her payout to R500,000.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Dave Chambers at Fin24
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