Training agreement and paying back costs

[Ekul]

Good afternoon,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me understand the following:

1) Currently looking to leave my current position due to quite frankly, terrible management, long hours, poor pay etc. I have other potential jobs in the pipeline.

2) I was offered a training course which I started in February this year. This runs for 2 years and the company paid a little over £1k for it. The course is proving to be tedious and a colleague has already dropped out of it.

3) I signed a training agreement which explicitly states that if I leave *after* completion of the course, I'm liable to pay back the costs of training on a sliding basis depending on how much time has passed since completion.

4) However, nowhere in the agreement does it say that I'm liable to pay back the costs *before* completion of the course.

Am I right in thinking, that the enforceability of the agreement relies on the accuracy of its wording and in that I couldn't be forced to repay the costs in this case? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks

[atticus]

You are right to think that the wording is important. Beyond that, we would need to see the wording.

[Ekul]

You are right to think that the wording is important. Beyond that, we would need to see the wording.

Thanks for your reply.

The exact wording is as follows from page 2 of the agreement. Page 1 simply has the name of the course, signatures etc.

"Training Claw-back:

Each annual block of Training will be assessed separately from date of final exam.

Less than one year after completion of training – 100% Cost Payback.

Between 1 year and 1 year 6 months after completion of training – 75% Cost Payback.

1 year 6 months but less than 1 year 9 months after completion of training – 50% Cost Payback.

1 year 9 months but less than 2 years after completion of training – 25% Cost Payback.

After 2 years of completing the course the training agreement will be exhausted with no payback necessary.

In the event of my failure to pay, I agree that my employer has the right as an express term of my contract of employment to deduct any outstanding amount due under this agreement from my salary or any other payments due to me on the termination of my employment in accordance with the legislation currently in force."

[ULA]

Given the wording you have posted, it certainly looks like they have not covered what will happen if you leave before completing the course.

I would say a faux par on their part and certainly something you can argue if they try to ask for you to repay back the cost of the training.

atticus do you agree?

[atticus]

I just have a concern that this does not require the employee to have completed the training, and that it may be possible to construe "completion of training" as meaning the date on which the training (if completed) would be completed.

Is there anything in a definitions clause which casts further light on this?

Does this agreement not contain any reference to the course not being completed, or to you withdrawing from it? Such clauses are standard in the templates I have just spent a few minutes looking at.

[Ekul]

I've studied the two pages of the agreement and nowhere on it does it make any provision or mention of paying back costs if I either don't complete or withdraw from the course.

Page 1 simply states:

1) Course title
2) Cost
3) Start date
4) Expected duration of course
5) My name and signature
6) HR head name and signature

Then onto page 2 which just mentions provision for exams and study leave and the last section quoted regarding repayment.

[Ekul]

Nor is there any appendix or mention of definition clauses.

[Ekul]

I've found the exact wording they've used for the agreement attached.

[atticus]

It could be argued that as you have not completed training you are leaving less than one year after completing training.

I think that a court may well sympathise with that argument. Sorry, but I am not going to say that you can easily escape liability to repay the money.

You might do best to try to negotiate a settlement amount and/or a payment plan.

[ULA]

In all training agreements I have drawn up there is a clear provision for if someone does not start or complete the course after a payment had beem made by the employer. This would be a 100% pay-back.

Although, as I have said the company has not covered this point, which you can argue I would anticpate the company trying to recover the money. By signing the agreement you are implicitly aware there is a 2 year continued service post completion to avoid any pay back to your employer.