If china unpaid bonus commission labor is on your desk, start by uploading the notice, agreement, order or correspondence to Caira. Ask about China law, draft letters or forms, and upload files for review.
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Check the dismissal date, deadline, contract, warnings, pay records and messages first.
For RMB 10 million of salary, bonus or severance, a careful chronology can change the negotiation.
Preserve lawful evidence, but avoid taking confidential files you should not access.
Use Caira to build a timeline and draft a response checklist.
Unpaid bonus and commission disputes in China are often won or lost before the labor arbitration hearing, because the documentary trail decides whether the payment looks contractual, policy-based, discretionary, or still unearned. A departing sales director, foreign employee, or senior manager may believe the company is withholding money because the relationship ended badly. The employer may answer that the bonus depended on approval, collection of revenue, continued employment, or company performance.
The useful first move is not to guess the result. It is to build the file that shows what was promised, what was achieved, and what conditions were communicated.
Start with the legal route
The official legal sources in the input are the Labor Contract Law in the NPC law database and the Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law published through official channels. Those are the authority for the employment and arbitration framework. China Judgments Online and the People's Court Case Database are practical research sources because they show how documents, internal policies, and performance evidence appear in disputes, but they should not be used as a can help of outcome.
In many employment disputes, labor arbitration is the required first formal forum before court litigation. The timing rules can be strict, so an employee should check the statutory limitation provisions and the local arbitration committee's filing requirements as soon as the payment is missed or the employment relationship ends. Do not wait for months of informal HR promises if the amount is significant.
Identify what kind of money it is
Different labels matter. A not automatic thirteenth-month salary is different from an annual discretionary bonus. A sales commission calculated from signed contracts may differ from commission tied to cash collection, invoice issuance, gross margin, or customer acceptance. Equity incentives, phantom shares, and founder-side arrangements may fall partly outside a simple wage claim and need contract review.
Create a payment map. For each disputed amount, write the plan name, period, formula, target, approval step, vesting or continued-employment condition, and the document that proves it. Where the employer changed the plan mid-year, keep the old version, new version, announcement date, and proof of employee consent or acknowledgment if available.
Evidence to collect before filing
Employment documents: labor contract, offer letter, job description, employee handbook, compensation plan, commission policy, bonus policy, amendments, and signed acknowledgments.
Performance proof: sales reports, CRM exports, customer contracts, delivery records, invoices, collection records, target letters, leaderboard data, and manager approvals.
Payment history: payslips, bank records, tax withholding records, prior bonus payments, commission calculations, and finance-team emails.
Exit file: resignation or termination notice, handover documents, final settlement letter, noncompete notice, release language, and HR chat records.
Witness and context: names of managers who approved targets, finance staff who calculated commission, and colleagues paid under the same rule.
Preserve originals or complete screenshots. A cropped chat message saying commission approved is weaker than the full conversation showing who spoke, when, and what customer or period was being discussed. If documents are in an employer system, export lawfully while access remains available. Do not use another employee's login or take confidential customer data beyond what is necessary for legal information and document review.
Simplified Chinese checklist
Use this to label the evidence pack:
劳动合同和薪酬方案: 奖金、提成、年终奖条款。
业绩证明: 销售合同、回款记录、发票、CRM截图。
审批记录: 主管确认、邮件、企业微信/钉钉聊天记录。
历史发放: 工资单、银行流水、个税记录。
离职文件: 解除/辞职通知、交接表、结算单。
How to frame the claim
A persuasive claim separates facts from conclusions. Instead of saying the company cheated me, state that the 2025 sales commission plan promised a stated percentage after customer payment, the customer paid on a named date, the finance team calculated a named amount, and the employer has not paid it. If the payment was discretionary, explain why discretion may have been exercised in practice: prior years, written approvals, uniform treatment of comparable employees, or specific manager confirmations.
Also prepare for the employer's defenses. They may argue the plan required active employment on the payment date, that targets were not met, that revenue was refunded, that the employee breached handover duties, or that the payment was a management incentive outside the labor contract. Your evidence table should have a column for likely employer response and the document that answers it.
Before settlement or arbitration
Ask a Caira or Caira to review whether the claim is employment, civil contract, equity-plan, or mixed. Check whether the employer has issued a final settlement document with waiver language before signing anything. If the employee is foreign, confirm that work permit, tax, and immigration documents do not create separate timing problems.
No article can promise that a bonus or commission will be awarded. The realistic goal is to turn a vague unpaid money dispute into a dated, document-backed claim that an arbitrator, mediator, or settlement Caira can evaluate quickly.
Sources
MOHRSS labour contract materials
NPC law database: labour dispute mediation and arbitration law
local HRSS or labour arbitration commission
This article is general information, not legal, financial, medical or tax advice.
