Persued from debt recovery company for refund of training fees

[J1979]

I have recently recieved a letter from a debt recovery company to reclaim training fees for my past employer. I left soon after the training was completed however i have previously already performed this training but was included on the course again whilst other colleugues had the training. The coarse had a fixed cost which was not affected by the number of employees who attended. My employement contract has a clause which states training should be repaid on a sliding scale and the refund should be taken from my final salary, normally this has been previously enforced to cover employees who ask for proffesional qualifications. Just before the coarse started a seperate training agreement was handed out. As the coarse is for the use of software that is critical for us to perform our jobs we refused to sign the agreement, the cost was also incorrect as the number of attendees had reduced through no fault of our own. Our HR advisor discussed this with our director then sent an email out to say we could disregard the training agreement. During my notice period and after i have left no attempt was made to discuss repayment with me nor did i believe i would have to because of what i had been told by HR. No attempt was made by the company to take payment from my final salary which is how it would be taken as stated in my contract of employment. Now i have been issued with a letter from a debt recover company saying it may be taken to court if i do not pay. As i was the only person in the team which could use this software which has enabled the company to sell a large portion of thier products over the past 9 years i believe this is unjustified especially after i was instructed i did not have to sign the specific agreement for this coarse. I am preparred to challenge this as i have copies of the emails sent to me by HR. Can anyone advise where I stand regarding this.

[Celestine]

*Looks like after your departure your former employer decided to try and recover some costs. Did you receive any previous communication from your previous employer before the debt company became involved?*
Ula will be best to advise on the training clawback element but the email from HR does significantly impact the strength of this claim against you. As this would be a court claim, you would be wise to prepare to defend.*

[ULA]

Hi, I've just got a couple of questions:

1. Did the contract clause refer to what type of training would require repayment on a sliding scale since this is usually applied to professional or higher qualifications?
2. Do you by any chance have a copy of that email from HR saying the training agreement for that course could be disregarded?
3. Have you had any form of correspondence from the company since you left regarding repayment for the training or is the first contact you have had?
4. Have you changed address since you worked for this employer?

Answers to the above would be really helpful for us to provide you with some guidance as to what to do in response to the letter.*

[J1979]

Hi there....the contract just states training coarses. There is no specific types mentioned. The company has had a very mixed approach in to what they have asked people to sign for agreeing to pay back. Once we disagreed to signing the agreement our argument was that this would not personally gain ourselves but only the company. I have not recieved any certificate or proffesional qualification from attending the coarse. I have the email from HR advising me to disregard the training agreement as well as an unsigned copy of the agreement as well as the email asking us to sign it. I have had no communication from the company during my notice period or at any point since. All i have recieved is this letter after i have left the company which is not feom them but from a debt recovery firm. If they had said that i would have to of repaid this, i would not of attended the coarse and only of let the untrained employees attend themselves.

[ULA]

Sorry did not see an answer to the question about whether you have changed your address from when you were employed?

[J1979]

Sorry...no i have not changed address. The training was only a few months ago and i have just recently changed job.

[ULA]

Thank you for your response which means they could not have been sending correspondence to you at an address you may have moved on from since leaving their employment. Sorry i should have asked but did not realise it was not that long ago that you left the company.

In my opinion given that you have the email evidence that the training agreement could be disregarded, which I presume detailed repayment on a sliding scale, I am not sure how they can now rely on a clause in the contract. It seems to be a very "heavy handed" approach to immediately pass the matter to a debt recovery company so soon after you have left without making any attempt to contact you about the issue, either as part of the process of you leaving the company, or immediately after you left.

Given what you had said with the further information you have provided then I will tag Celestine as this has moved out of an employment law situation and is therefore beyond my area of expertise.

[J1979]

Ive just looked at the company who is informaing me that payment must be made. They appear to be a solocitor which specialise in debt collecrion.

[Celestine]

Hi - that would not be a surprise, there are many solicitors specialising in debt recovery. What exactly are they saying will happen next. Have you written confirming that you were formally told to disregard the training costs and that you still have the emails and any attempt at litigation will be defended.

[J1979]

I now have 20 days to respond to their letter with either full payment or to provide suitable information as to why i wish to dispute this. They want evidence to be attached, so i have copies of the emails sent from my HR Team as well as a copy of the unsigned agreement. I have made no formal contact yet to the company since recieving this letter. Any advice on how this should be approached would be greatly appreciated

[Celestine]

Hi - Why don't you draft a letter setting out exactly why this claim is unfounded and unfair. Explain the sequence of events regarding the training course and attach screenshots of the emails. Be very calm, precise and firm. Hopefully, but certainly not guaranteed, a well set out letter may put them off pursuing something that would be a slam dunk to defend frankly. If you need help finishing the letter, come back here and share an anonymised version. (No names/company details) and we can help you polish it into something more finished?*

[J1979]

Thanks for this. I will get something draughted up and post it for a quick review.

[J1979]

Hi There, please find below my final draught of the letter I intend to send to reject this claim for recovery of costs. I have also been asked to complete a financial statement which include all financial details of my household. As I am disputing this do I need to complete this form at this moment in time?

Any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated, this is the first and hopefully the last time anything like this has happened to me. The *** will be replaced by the company name in the letter sent.


Dear Sir /Madam

Whilst I feel deeply saddened to have received this claim from my previous employer regarding this matter, I feel that this claim is unfounded and unfair due to reason listed below. That is why I am rejecting the claim in full and will robustly defend my position not to reimburse these fees.

1. This training course was finalised well in advance of the actual start date with the total fixed cost being determined regardless of the number of employees attending. One of the named employees resigned prior to the start of the course which *** are now attempting to apportion and recover a percentage of that employees training cost to me. This I consider unacceptable and apportioned cost should be based on original numbers.

1. I assisted with obtaining an initial quotation for this training then past these details to my HR Officer to finalise the number of attendees and a suitable date for this training to take place. This process took a few months to organise and during this time the company had ample opportunity to inform to all employees who they wanted to undertake this training, that they would personally be liable for the training costs in the event of resignation.

1. Referring to point (2) *** proceeded to book training for named staff members within the company without firstly providing those employees a training agreement.

1. *** HR department only issued said training agreement to the members of staff *** wanted to attend the training course 7 days prior to the course start date. This training agreement stated that if an employee resigned after attending the training, they would be required to repay part costs. I considered this short notice inadequate and an unreasonable, time period to decide to accept or not without feeling pressured to do so.

1. *** failed to inform within the training agreement they would attempt to collect costs through the use of anxiety triggering debt letters, and the use of solicitors. This condition alone, had I been made aware of it, would have provided significant reason to reject it and I would have decide not to attend the training on behalf of and for the benefit of ***. It is clearly stated in my contract any debt owed to the company would be deducted from my final salary payment, which the company also failed to do.
2. Referring to Point (4) I decided not to accept **** conditions within the agreement and stated this directly to my HR Department. To personally accept these (incorrect) costs, taking into account the fact that I have been trained in the use of this software since 2006, the training was to gain additional users and I would gain no professional qualification or personal gain, was the basis of my decision.

1. Other attendees of the training course were also request within the same 1 week time frame to sign *** terms and conditions of the training agreement. I learned that at least one other was not prepared to accept and subsequently approached a Snr director directly about the matter as he believed this was job critical training which did not benefit himself long term.

1. After a discussion between the company director and HR officer an email was sent to all attendees stating that the personnel attending the training could all disregard the training agreement.

To end my rejection of this speculative attempt to recover monies I wish to add that *** approached me in 2012 to re-join their business due to my experience in the industry and existing design knowledge of the products they manufacture. I did not seek or approach them for employment and I have provided many years of loyal service spanning over two separate terms of employment. In my opinion I have played a key role in *** expansion into new markets and engineering new products that has provided *** a significant return on investment from my employment.

My leaving the business I felt was amicable up until receiving this attempt at cost recovery which leaves me feeling *** has initiated this claim out of resentment. *** made no attempt to discuss this or any other matter with me after receiving my resignation or during my notice period.
*** in my opinion seem now to be attempting to backtrack on their decision within the emails I have attached below stating we could all disregard the training agreement we were unwilling to sign. This situation now leaves me disappointed at the company’s attitude and feeling as though I have been misled by both my director and HR Officer.

Please see below attachments of email correspondence.
Fig.1 – Email requesting we sign attached training agreement
Fig.2 – Copy of training agreement
Fig.3 – Email stating training agreement could be disregarded

Kind Regards

[Celestine]

Morning - I'm taking a look at this now. I'll have a play around with it as it is a bit too long and perhaps could be punchier.

[J1979]

Thanks, its appreciated.