The number of
Johnson Controls salespeople suing their employer following the implementation of a new sales incentive plan last November continues to grow.
Last month, BizTimes Milwaukee was first to report that a group of Johnson Controls salespeople
filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging the new sales incentive plan eradicated a system of backlog payments that was previously due to them under a previous version of the plan.
Now, 16 additional JCI salespeople have joined the original lawsuit which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Jan. 12.
The six plaintiffs named in the original version of the lawsuit were Daniel Novin, Stewart Swander, Timothy Butler, Reid Begnoche, Dustin Brown and Jeffrey Erker.
The amended criminal complaint now lists 22 total plaintiffs. New plaintiffs include Sam Klumpers, Gary Gray, Christopher Johnston, Joseph Perea, Brian Reis, Mark Zip, Patrick Mooney, David Howze, Scott McCollam, Matt Carville, Ricky Scott, Michael Migliaccio, Keith Wahl, Andrew Huntzinger, William Roberts and Froilan Garma.
These additional sales representatives work at Johnson Controls’ offices in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, New York, Indiana and Hawaii.
Under JCI’s previous 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.
Newly named plaintiff Sam Klumpers is an account executive with Johnson Controls who works out of the company’s Madison office. By joining the lawsuit, an additional charge that alleges JCI is violating Wisconsin wage laws was added to the complaint. The lawsuit states JCI owes Klumpers -- and any other similarly situated employees in Wisconsin -- the full amount of wages owed, and a penalty of up to 50% of the unpaid wages and legal costs.
"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.”
After employee backlash stemming from the new plan, JCI offered salespeople two additional bridge payments through a “Sales Bridge Retention Payment” program. The two additional payments, scheduled for June 2025 and June 2026, total 14% of each person’s backlog, according to the amended complaint.
Salespeople will only receive the two upcoming bridge payments if they agree to remain an active employee with the company and agree to a non-competitive provision, according to the revised complaint. Employees must also agree to a non-solicitation provision that will prevent them from recruiting any other JCI employees leaving the company.
"Johnson Controls conditioned receipt of the backlogs accrued in past fiscal years on the named plaintiffs and those similarly situated agreeing to continuing to work at Johnson Controls with additional restrictive covenants that would limit the named plaintiffs’ ability to find work after they left Johnson Controls," the amended complaint states.
A jury trial has been requested for this case. Johnson Controls has yet to formally reply to the lawsuit, court documents show.
Several Johnson Controls salespeople
in Michigan have also filed lawsuits against the company.
