UK Employment Law\ Employer \ Training Fees
How to recover training fees
Bosses can often find someone who they’ve recently employed and spent money on, leaving for another job. Sometimes they will have invested thousands of pounds on training courses in order that the new member of staff has professional qualifications. This can be even worse if the employee quits, only to end up working for a competitor.
Try treating any training fees as a loan.
An employer can make the offer of professional training as a loan, so that if the employee leaves before a certain time, he or she will have to pay the cost of the courses. All that needs to be done is to insert a repayment clause into the employment contract. This should state that training costs are “deemed” to be a loan and that it has to be repayed if the employee quits before a certain date.
It is also a good idea to put such clauses into a separate deal with the employee. The reason is that such repayments will continue to be valid even if the company breaches the employment contract. Keeping agreements separate will allow for training costs to still be recovered.
Is the level of cost recovery genuine?
Managers must make sure that the recovery of costs permitted in an agreement is a genuine pre-estimate of any damage suffered. If they are not, then they could be deemed as a penalty against the employee. To the same effect, any benefits gained by the company by sending the employee on a course (for example where an employer has charged more for a worker’s services because of an additional professional qualification), then the recoverable costs may be reduced.
The recovery of training costs agreement should also outline a scale whereby the amount to be repaid gets smaller as the employee’s length of service increases. The same scale can be used if the member of staff is sacked for gross misconduct.
Deducting from wages.
The costs can be deducted from wages so long as there is a clause written into the employee’s agreement. This will mean a company can avoid going to court to recover costs of training. The agreement should make it clear that the employer can deduct directly from the salary or any other payments due (such as accrued holiday pay and bonuses).
Make sure:
- the employee has signed in agreement of such deductions; and
- there is a clear statement saying that they will come out of wages; and
- the agreement must relate to deductions from the specified source.
Make sure the above provisions are drafted correctly. You should ask a solicitor to carry out such work. Another error that can be made: carrying out invalid deductions. If this happens, then a Tribunal can order the employer to repay any costs to the employee. He then loses the chance to recover monies using other courses of legal action.
