Training repayment

[nipsips]

Hi guys,

I work for a company as a engineer who was employed initially as an engineer to cover a certain area which is in the middle of a larger region.

18 months ago, just as my employer took on a large contract they were bought out. In the process they selected several engineers to work on this contract - I was not one of those. I got pulled onto the contract about a year ago, to cover a site 130 miles from my house and was told that I would be trained (which has happened) however this was only done because another engineer left, and if I didn’t go on the course it would be cancelled with no refund so I had to drop everything to go.

I’ve done this, but since I undertook this training things have gone downhill very quickly, redundancy’s have taken place, the wrong staff were let go and those who are left are now in the wrong place to carry out the work and are being leaned on to pull miracles out of the bag everyday to get things done. The company that took over are awful to work for, have increased our admin requirements 10 fold to the point now that to complete one job I have to fill out about 15 pieces of paper, then kick off because productivity is going down and they pressure us into working late every night to accommodate this. My social life has disappeared, I’m too tired and I’m at the point where I cannot take anymore. I need to leave however I feel almost trapped by the cost it would be to leave

I need to know the following:

My contract states I need to repay training on a sliding scale. This training does not benefit any other industry and was done to get them out of a hole. Do I still have to repay it even though my name wasn’t on the training when it was booked and was changed 2 days before at threat of losing the money?

If I have to repay it - what documentation can I request and in what time scale. A colleague who left had a large sum deducted without any documentation and when documentation was provided about 3 months after he left they had overcharged him.

Lastly - the sum is approx. £1500-£4500 depending on who you talk to as no one actually knows. Do they have a right to deduct this from my penultimate pay packet even though it will leave me with 0 money coming in that month or can I insist that I settle it upon production of invoices?

Thanks for your help

[Countdown]

From my experience - if they've instructed you to go on the course (as a requirement of your job) then you shouldn't need to repay. If you asked to go on the Course (for self development) then they normally have a sliding-scale agreement to repay. For example

Gas engineers needed some kind of annual certification - the Company would pay for that.
Finance Assistant wanted to do his CIMA exams - we agreed a 50-50 split, and a sliding repayment scale.

For the second scenario we normally get our Employees to sign a special form to confirm that they will repay. This is to avoid the scenario that you are facing, where it's not clear whether or not you owe the money back

Having said all that what it boils down to is what it says on your Contract (and whether it makes the distinction between two types of training). Most contracts nowadays have a general catch-all clause that says "If you owe us any money for whatever reason this will be deducted from your pay".

If they insist that you owe them £X then they can deduct it from your final pay, even if it goes down to zero.