Leaving work - Employer withholding Holiday Pay

[Ek1994]

Hello all,

I am hoping that someone can help me?

I have recently resigned from a company that I have been working for since March 2020.

My reason for resigning is because I requested to have some time off work as my grandma has taken ill and I am unable to focus in work at the moment as my mental heath has been affected by this and I also need to be around my family supporting them and making the necessary arrangements for when the worst happens.

My employer showed no sympathy for my situation and it soon became apparent that she wasn’t bothered about my feelings and only bothered about the plan for work. I advised I need a few days to think about what I would like to do and I would speak to her on Monday (This conversation was had on a Thursday) so for 3 days I requested not to be contacted I advised at this point that my aim was to return to work in 1 weeks time providing I felt well enough to do my day to day role.

My employer contacted me every day and even sent a message via WhatsApp saying has your Nan died yet? Which I obviously find highly offensive. We then had a phone conversation on the Monday where again my employer showed no sympathy and told me to stop playing the victim and taking out my personal issues on work which I believe I wasn’t.

During this conversation she also advised that if I didn’t come back soon and sit my scheduled exam I would have no job role for the new year.

After this conversation I was in shock and it made me feel like I was being harassed and forced to come back into work before I am ready. I advised that at this time I can not give her a date to return and that I would be happy to get a sick note from the doctors and be on SSP.

The following day after much thought regarding what has happened in recent days I have decided today to hand my notice in with immediate affect because I now feel unsupported and uncomfortable in the work place.

After sending in my notice I received an email from my employer advising that I would need to pay back money for exams/studying that the company paid for for around £2500.

I don’t recall ever signing any document which states I would ever need to pay anything back if I left and also I feel it is unfair for her to make me pay for a qualification that I was unable to complete because I have been made to feel uncomfortable and has made me feel like I am now unable to work with her and leave my job and don’t currently have any income to pay back anything.

I also have been advised that I had holidays 23 days plus bank holidays I have only taken 2 days holiday this year so would I now be entitled to my holiday pay or could she take the holiday pay fro. Me and use it as a part payment for the money she feels that I owe to her?

Any help would be much appreciated

[ULA]

So it would appear you have two questions one around the repayment of training costs, the second about holiday pay on termination.

Repayment of training costs:

1. in your contract of employment was there anything about the requirement to repay training costs in the event that you left employment either before the training was completed or in a certain time period after the training was finished?
2. Did you sign any separate agreement to that effective before you started the training?
3. Was there anything verbally said to you about this either at interview or before you started the training?

Holiday Pay:

You are entitled to be paid for any accrued but untaken holiday from the start of your employment up to your leaving date.

I cannot answer your question "could she take the holiday pay fro. Me and use it as a part payment for the money she feels that I owe to her?" until I know the answers to the above questions.

I have a further question, you said that you handed in your notice with immediate effect, what was your contractual notice period?

[Ek1994]

Hi

Thank you for your response.

I don’t believe it stated anywhere in my contract about repaying training If I was to leave and I haven’t signed any additional paperwork other than the first contract of employment.

A conversation regarding paying back for training was briefly spoken about after another member of staff was also put on training and I believe she said she might need to update our contracts to add this in because there are more than one person now doing training but no such new contract was ever written and none of the staff have re signed anything.

In regards to my notice period I believe this is 4 weeks notice but we have had 3 other members of staff leave within the last 6 months and none of them have had to work a notice period everyone has left immediately.

I hope this information is enough for you to answer my above questions?

[ULA]

Thank you for the further inforamtion which is very useful.

On repayment of training costs - if there was nothing in your contract of employment stating that you were required to repay training costs in the event that you left employment either before the training was completed or in a certain time period after the training was finished, nor did you sign an agreement to deductions being made to repay training costs, then if your employer tries to do this it would be an unlawful dedcuction of wages. If that happened you would be able to submit for Early Conciliation via ACAS, which if not successful, would then allow you to make an Employment Tribunal claim. This process must be started within 3 months less a day from when the deduction was made.

On holiday pay - if your employer tries to use this to offset the training costs and then the point above comes into play.

On the resignation with immediate effect - your employer could consider this as a breach of contract if you were required to give 4 weeks, which would allow them to consider pursuing you for compensation for any losses incurred as a result of your breach. However they would have to prove the losses.

[Ek1994]

Thank you so much

[Ek1994]

Is there any form of letter or template that you would recommend I send to my employer stating this?

[ULA]

I have no template but you can certainly lift relevant bits from my posts to help you. I am also more than happy so long as you xxx identifying information such as company name and your name for you to post up your draft and I can review it.