Want to leave my company but unsure about a clause in my contract....Please help (UK)

[paul285v]

Hello,

Basically i've been with my company for just under 2 years on what they call a 'graduate programme' however they promise employment upon finishing. Upon joining I was to believe they would pay for training courses etc but they haven't but I decided to stick it out.

Recently I have been offered a new job with a multinational firm in a completely different industry and have accepted with my start date being after my two year period with my current company is up.

I notice a clause in my contract that state:

'Should you terminate this contract for any reason, you shall be liable for all costs and expenses incurred, by the Company for your graduate programme, in the previous two years before your termination. This includes but is not limited to any amount spent on training as well as any amount contained in any personal development agreements signed between the parties'

The only expenses incurred in my 2 years with the company are:

-Business expenses (travel with my job for work purposes)
-Housing allowance to be relocated to perform my job as originally I was told I would be based near home and then this changed to all around the UK and the salary I accepted would not be sufficient for me to live and pay rent (This was class as a benefit in kind)
-In house training (majority of my training which has been poor and a lot of it has been me learning on the job with little help)
-2 courses that I needed to perform my job which cost £600 in total (obviously my salary too)

My question is upon reading this...what are your first thoughts ? Could they (if they wanted too) reclaim any of the above if I leave bang on when my two years is up? Could they claim all housing allowance back, the 2 courses and business expenses?

Please help, it would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

[ULA]

Dealing with the itemised expenses in your post:

Business expenses (travel with my job for work purposes)
I presume that the company had a policy in regard to the claiming of business expenses and normally this would cover things such as reimbursement for travel expenses to go from an employees’ normal place of work to another location at the employer’s request. If the expenses you are referring to were covered on this basis then these would be deemed as legitimate business expense and should not be something that the company expects to be paid back on termination.

Housing allowance to be relocated to perform my job as originally, I was told I would be based near home and then this changed to all around the UK and the salary I accepted would not be sufficient for me to live and pay rent (This was class as a benefit in kind).
I presume that the company paid you a housing allowance which was added to your salary and paid through payroll for which tax and National Insurance were deducted. Again, I would firstly refer you to any policy that the company has in regard to this allowance, the provision of it and what happens on termination if you have received this allowance.

In house training (majority of my training which has been poor and a lot of it has been me learning on the job with little help).
In-house training is often hard to quantify in monetary terms, so I would suggest it is unlikely that this will be something you are asked to repay. However, that said, I have heard of some companies putting a value to it and if your employer is one of them then they may request this to be reimbursed – this is not the norm though.

2 courses that I needed to perform my job which cost £600 in total (obviously my salary too)
This is where I believe that the company will ask for reimbursement (more usually it will be the cost of the course only) and will use the clause that you have detailed to support their request to do so.

Just as an additional note normally training “claw-back” clauses have a sliding scale of repayments over a period of time i.e. an employee is asked to pay back less after say 12 months through to nothing after 24 months as the employer has had business benefit of the training. Not sure if you have such a clause, however if you are planning on leaving as soon as your training ends then you are looking at 100% of the cost to repay.

[paul285v]

Just as an additional note normally training “claw-back” clauses have a sliding scale of repayments over a period of time i.e. an employee is asked to pay back less after say 12 months through to nothing after 24 months as the employer has had business benefit of the training. Not sure if you have such a clause, however if you are planning on leaving as soon as your training ends then you are looking at 100% of the cost to repay.
[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much for your reply. Apologies but in your opinion from what you have said as there is no policy in place at our company for housing allowance. If I do have to pay back 100% of costs due to the sliding scale, correct me if i'm wrong from what you've said (if i'm reading correctly and providing housing allowance is not classed as a training expense)...would this be £600?

Thank you

[Matty B]

Is this Capita by any chance?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...-a8379636.html

[paul285v]

Is this Capita by any chance?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...-a8379636.html

Hi Matty,

No it's not but thank you for the link.

Thank you

[ULA]

If housing allowance is not classed as a training expense and they do not have a figure to quantify in-house training then from what you have told me if the cost of external training amounts to £600 then that is what you appear to be liable for. Did you sign any personal development agreement?

[paul285v]

If housing allowance is not classed as a training expense and they do not have a figure to quantify in-house training then from what you have told me if the cost of external training amounts to £600 then that is what you appear to be liable for. Did you sign any personal development agreement?

I signed nothing other than the initial contract with the clause I originally stated in the original post?

[ULA]

In that case based on what you have said and my other caveats at #6 then it looks like the possible amount to repay will be the £600 on external training.

[Matty B]

Hi Matty,

No it's not but thank you for the link.

Thank you

It just rang a bell- it had come up in my news feeds on my mobile

Sorry to sidetrack you