Reimbursement of training fees to an employer

[fargo99]

Hello,

I have seen posts regarding similar cases but I would greatly appreciate if you could please look over this and advise.

My employer has paid for training fees for 4 courses I have attended over past two years. Before starting the first course I was given a Training Reimbursement Agreement, which was for that specific course only, stating repayment terms.
For the next 3 courses I have not been given any agreements to sign, my employer was aware of all of them, approved them and paid the fees.

I handed my notice in and shortly after I was invited for a chat with my manager during which I was shown a calculation of the fees I owe them. Those included fees for all 4 courses I have attended.
I have reminded them that I have only signed a reimbursement agreement for the first course only but they said they feel that I should pay for all of them as this would be “the right thing to do” and that also we had a verbal agreement. (Which I do not recall, the only thing that was said when I received the first and only agreement was that I will receive similar agreements for all future courses to sign before attending those courses – which I have not. Additionally, this was a one on one conversation, only my manager and myself were present.)

Our employee handbook states that:
“Any money you owe to us, such as in respect of unpaid season ticket loans, training costs to be refunded as per an agreement, extra holiday or for any other reason, can be deducted from your final salary payment or from any other money we owe you on termination of your employment”

My contract, which I signed upon joining the company, reads:
“You agree that deductions may be made from your salary to ensure the correct payments are made on termination of employment. These deductions would cover any costs or liabilities incurred by the company, including but not limited to: loans, advances, excess holiday payments, personal use of company equipment, use of company car and any payments to third party arising from any act or omission by the employee”

Below are parts of my Training Reimbursement Agreement:
“Company intends to provide the following training to Employee on date indicated:
(course name)
(date)”
(…)
“The training cost incurred by Company on behalf of employee will be determined after the date of the completion of the training, and are the accumulation of all receipts, invoices or other supporting documents. The training cost incurred will include required textbooks, exam fees and study fees”
(…)
“Employee agrees to sign such further documents, if any, requested by Company to confirm the precise amount owed by employee to Company following notice by employee to Company of termination of employment” – can this part be used to make me sign further agreements for other courses even though this reimbursement agreement is specifically for the first course only?
(…)
“If any provision or part of the agreement is finally decided to be invalid by any tribunal of competent jurisdiction, such part shall be deemed automatically adjusted, if possible. If not possible, it shall be deemed deleted from this agreement as though it had never been included herein. In either case, the balance of any such provision and of the agreement shall remain in full force and effect”

My question is – am I legally liable for the reimbursement of the fees paid for those 3 courses that I have not signed reimbursement agreements for? Can my employer make me sign any additional contracts?
I have not had any further conversations with my manager but they said that we will need to discuss this before my leaving.

I am unsure on what I should do now and how should I handle any further conversations with my employer.

Any advice would be a massive help.
Thank you!

[ULA]

From the info you have provided then you have certainly signed an agreement that covers one of the training courses. I presume you know the full cost of that in accordance with “The training cost incurred by Company on behalf of employee will be determined after the date of the completion of the training, and are the accumulation of all receipts, invoices or other supporting documents. The training cost incurred will include required textbooks, exam fees and study fees”. In the agreement was there any clause relating to a training “claw-back” detailing 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?

Does your company have a Training Policy? If so what does it state about the Training Reimbursement Agreement (TRA), when it is used and what happens in the event one is not signed but training is provided with regard to termination. The answer to this question would be really a useful in terms of providing a view on the other 3 course you attended.

Also concerned about this section “Employee agrees to sign such further documents, if any, requested by Company to confirm the precise amount owed by employee to Company following notice by employee to Company of termination of employment”. Would it be possible to provide the context that appears in within the TRA? i.e the sections before and after.

[fargo99]

I am still waiting for the Company to give me the final amount as I believe HR and my manager deciding whether "completion of the training" should be counted from the exam day or from the day I have received my exam results.
I couldn't add a photo as it was too big, please see link to my TRA below. I have blanked out my name at the beginning, training name and cost and all the rest is the company name.
Also, my copy of TRA has not been signed by my Employer but I am assuming they should have a signed one as I signed 2 copies.

I will have a look at the employee handbook today but I believe we do not have a Training Policy in place.

[ULA]

Thank you for the copy of the TRA. So for this specific training which was around Feb 2016 and in accordance with their terms then you should have been notified of the training costs incurred after the date of the completion of the training. If I was being very pedantic the clause does not say after the completion of the training and once the results of the exams are known. In any event when did you get the exam results? If they wanted to argue to use this as the date then even so you should still have had this confirmed to you by now? Sorry do not know how long the training was for before you took the exam and then the wait time for the results.

In regard to this clause "

Employee agrees to sign such further documents, if any, requested by Company to confirm the precise amount owed by employee to Company following notice by employee to Company of termination of employment”

having seen it in context then I would say this relates to this specific agreement only.

Yes they should hold one copy on file with both signatures.

[fargo99]

I cannot remember specific date, but the training course finished at the end of May 2016, exam was on 7/6/2016 and results of the exam received on 18/7/2016.
I assume their logic is that, as the TRA says that total fee should include also exam fees (which were paid in advance, in February 2016), the completion of training is when exam results were received.
If this is the case, then reimbursement will be 50% (around £750 - btw should VAT be included in this? My company can claim back through VAT returns) as I’m leaving in a week time.
I still have not received a precise calculation nor have I received any additional documents to sign confirming total fee for that training course.

I have also had a look in the employee handbook which lists Company policies and procedures and there is no policy for trainings included in there. I cannot see anything on the company intranet either.

[ULA]

Unfortunately if they go with date exam results received then you are just going to miss out on the 2 year period at which point there is no "claw-back".

In regard to VAT I do not think that this should be charged to you.

Thanks for coming back to me regarding the lack of a training policy.

[fargo99]

I’m aware of that, do you think I can argue that it should be based on a date the course was completed?
In the TRA point 1) training name was listed as the name of my exam, not adding the training provider name (where I have attended the training course)

As for the other 3 trainings which I have not signed agreements for, do you think they can ask for reimbursement?

[ULA]

It is worth the discussion since there is an argument that the course was completed when you took the exam and at that time there should not have been any further costs to incur.

I think they will try but again you have the argument that if training costs are to be repaid then a TRA should have been put in place for each course. The issue that your employer will run into is unless there is a clause in your contract covering the right for the employer to make deductions from final sum to cover sums owing to the company e.g. overtaken holiday, training costs etc. then they run

the risk of it being an unlawful deduction from salary.

[fargo99]

Hi, so as per my contract, they can make deductions form the salary, contract says that:
"These deductions would cover any costs or liabilities incurred by the company, including but not limited to: loans, advances, excess holiday payments, personal use of company equipment, use of company car and any payments to third party arising from any act or omission by the employee"
However, at the same time the employee handbook, in section regarding leaving the company, states that deduction can be made from final salary and include "Any money you owe to us, such as in respect of unpaid season ticket loans, training costs to be refunded as per an agreement, extra holiday or for any other reason (...)"

If I understand this correctly, this means that a TRA should have been in place (as you also mentioned above) for each of the 3 courses but this has not happen. Would s.15(1)(b) of Employment Rights Act apply here?

[ULA]

The employee handbook section you have quoted clearly states that an agreement has to be in place re training costs and to give the right for the company to deduct owing amounts from your final salary.

This supports by view that if they did try to deduct the other 3 courses from your final salary then it would be an unlawful deduction from salary.