Another
Johnson Controls employee is suing the company following the implementation of a new sales incentive plan last November – this time in the state of New York.
A civil complaint was filed Monday in Nassau County, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. That complaint names Francesco Pagano, a resident of Massapequa, New York, as the plaintiff in the case. He works out of Johnson Controls’ Manhattan office and sells HVAC systems. Pagano booked approximately $36 million in sales for Johnson Controls between 2022 and 2023, according to the complaint.
"(Pagano) is an extremely successful salesperson for (Johnson Controls) and his sales for the company are celebrated annually by defendant," according to the complaint.
Under JCI's previous version of the sales incentive plan, salespeople received a portion of their commission when a project was booked and the remainder of their commission as the project hit key milestones. This created a backlog of commission payments that ranged in size for each salesperson.
The new sales plan does away with that commission structure not only moving forward, but also on projects booked prior to Oct. 1, 2023 that had not reached required milestones. This means backlog payments will not be paid out.
At the end of 2023, Pagano was allegedly owed $229,452 in commissions for projects booked but not yet complete.
After learning of the new system, several salespeople allegedly attempted to save data related to their pre-existing backlogs. However, JCI allegedly wiped all information regarding employee backlogs from employee portals.
"Many managers were outraged for (Pagano) and other salespersons at the amount of commissions which were stolen from the salespersons," according to the complaint. "Many managers took the step of printing salespersons estimated remaining incentive reports when (Johnson Controls) erased the salespersons dashboards so they had proof of how much they were due."
The New York complaint alleges Johnson Controls violated New York labor laws by not providing written notice to employees of the sales incentive plan changes that were also implemented retroactively. New York labor laws also state when a commissioned salesperson is not properly paid all owed commissions, that commissioned salesperson “shall be automatically entitled to double damages, attorney’s fees and court costs.”
The New York lawsuit follows legal action taken by Johnson Controls salespersons in both
Wisconsin and
Michigan.
“The success of our organization is directly tied to the success of our people, and we routinely assess our practices to best support their growth and achievements,” said Johnson Controls in a previously issued statement. “We modified our sales incentive program to better align with our company strategy to deliver smart, healthy and more sustainable environments for our customers. We will continue to assist our sales organization to ensure a seamless transition to our revised competitive model.”
