Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from ear

[Nlearie]

Hi

Im really hoping someone on here could help me.

I was employed by a company. Prior to my employment, the company paid for a qualification course for another employee. The course was for 2 levels, and the got a discount for buying the 2 levels together.

This employee left left the company after I began employment. They hadn’t even started the course & hadn’t signed a training clawback clause.

the course was offered to me, but I’d done the first half of the course & had paid for it myself.

the total cost of the course was £2115. I signed a training clawback clause when I took over the course.

The clause didn’t have any figures on it, and stated that I would be liable for the costs for 12 months after completion. It said that it could be deducted from my final wage.

they are claiming that I owe them £1595, which they deducted from my final months pay.

the 2 levels cost around the same amount. So I find the £1595 high, and without them taking into account the benefit to them I’m thinking that th amount that they are saying I owe is a penalty.

the other thing is that technically they’ve not lost anything financially as the course was just sat there.

has anyone got any thoughts on this issue?

[ULA]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

Firstly you did sign the training claw-back clause and that will be very evident as your company, I presume, can produced the signed document.

However if I understand your post correctly the course was in 2 parts with total cost £2115, however you already had part 1 therefore the company can only really expect that the claw-back covers the course you actually took, therefore a total cost of £1057.50 assuming each course was 50% of the overall cost. On offering you the course they knew you did not need to take part 1 so that for them is unfortunately a "written off" cost. I therefore feel you can argue that although you agree you signed the claw-back clause the amount should be £1057.50 at the most, being the value of the course you attended. In addition there may be some cause for explaining that the company has had a benefit of you attending the course, so how many months is it since you finished the course? My thinking being if you finished the course 5 months ago then the benefit they have had is 5/12 and you will take with you 7 months benefit so the claw-back would be 7/12 of £1057.50.

Hope that makes sense.

[Nlearie]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

Hi Ula, that makes perfect sense. It’s just so annoying they said when they offered me it...it’s sat there doing nothing and will go to waste.

[Viking1985]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

Hi Ula, that makes perfect sense.

Hi,

Have you kind of come to a "settled offer" here?

if you have then you could consider urgently contacting your ACAS conciliator on Monday and getting them to put that offer to your employer.

They could only say no: but they may agree, the conciliator would write up a BINDING agreement (a COT3 I think) and you then MUST PAY.

No Tribunal for you, no Solicitor / day out of workplace for them.

Vilking

[Nlearie]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

Hi Viking1985,

I've not even thought about this! There's so much to prepare for the tribunal I've been focusing on that. When I look back on emails etc. I can see my employer sent me a different clause to read. This is different to the one I signed and I'm feeling a bit duped, as I signed the clause thinking it was the same (without reading it...I know my own stupid fault!)

[Viking1985]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

Hi Nlearie,

So what happened?

Good learning for the contributors to the Forum if we see "a result"...

Viking

[Nlearie]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

Hi!

so my employer was trying to charge me more than what they’d paid for the course, so they got found guilty of illegal deductions from earnings but I was fully liable for the full cost of the course

[ULA]

Re: Employment Tribunal on Tuesday - training costs recovery & illegal deduction from

So was this the outcome of the tribunal "they got found guilty of illegal deductions from earnings but I was fully liable for the full cost of the course"?