not being paid for training

lormac

I have been informed by my new employer that if I dont pass a city and Guilds exam I will not be paid for that weeks work. I have to do two weeks training will be paid for the first week as this is in house but not for the second if I dont pass the course. The position depends on me passing the City and Guilds. Can they do this, I have not signed anything relating to this as I want to find out first if they can do this, they also have in their terms and conditions that if you leave within a three month period by your own choice they will keep £500 of your final wages to cover costs of "training".

lormac

anybody got any advice, apart from make sure you pass lol

elsien

I would check where you stand on with the not being paid bit with ACAS if I were you. Doesn't sound right, but it's not my field.
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1410

As far as paying back the training costs go, that's quite common - the idea is to stop people getting free training then hoofing off to another employer leaving the company out of pocket. In our organisation you have to sign a form agreeing to this before the training is arranged. However if you said no, the training wouldn't happen and you'd be out of a job if it's an essential requirement.
So I'd focus on finding out if it's legal to withhold your pay for that second week if I were you. What City and Guilds is it? And good luck with the exams.

lormac

thanks for the advice

the C&G is in Home Energy Awareness, for home energy assessors, it is a 3 day course with the exam on the fourth.

Seems to be quite a short course for a C&G qualification to me but company say it has to be done.

elsien

I wonder if it might be this type of thing.
http://www.cityandguilds.com/41828.html?search_term=6176

The 6176 qualification counts as knowledge evidence towards specific units of NVQ Level 2 Provide Energy Efficiency Services.
Participants must have basic literacy and numeracy skills, be able to use a calculator and be able to extract and interpret data from given tables.

Looks like a level 2 type thing, so shouldn't be too bad, if this is the sort of thing you'll be doing.

timmmers

So you could pay for this yourself privately, but you're getting it paid by them to fill a new post they have?

It's a nice qual to have considering. Seems fair to me.

My local pub paid for a staff member to gain their private licence so they could be manager...if they failed, they couldn't do the job so didn't get the job. The training was still paid, but that was just the boss being nice and risking them passing out of trust.

The qualification in either case can go with you if you leave...so that's why it's well worth having.

What was your current role I'm wondering, if you didn't need this prior to now?

t

hullight

Sounds like work to me. They should pay you as they have already covered training costs by making you repay them if you leave before a certain time.

lormac

just to put the icing on the cake they told every new employee that we would not be getting paid till 15 dec, after telling us we would be paid 15 nov. :eek::eek: mb have to think about looking for another job cos cant survive 6wks no income.

timmmers

lormac wrote: »

just to put the icing on the cake they told every new employee that we would not be getting paid till 15 dec, after telling us we would be paid 15 nov. :eek::eek: mb have to think about looking for another job cos cant survive 6wks no income.

Is this the FIRST payday for you that you mention?
If so, the jobcentre can help you with that with a loan to tide you over.

t

lormac

Thanks for the advice but I dont want to go down the taking loans to cover me until I get paid, I would like to be paid for the hours that I have done.

olly300

lormac wrote: »

just to put the icing on the cake they told every new employee that we would not be getting paid till 15 dec, after telling us we would be paid 15 nov. :eek::eek: mb have to think about looking for another job cos cant survive 6wks no income.

Different employers have different pay schedules.

Some will not pay employees who start mid-month for their first month until they have also worked month two as they keep firmly to the clause about paying in arrears. While others will pay you for the remainder of the month so you may actually be paid up to 7 days in advance depending on when the pay day falls.