Have to repay noney for NVQ that I didn,t finish & my empoyer has lost my contract!

scorpio62

Hello all.

Hoping someone can advise me here. As a care support worker, I signed up to do NVQ2 last September 9th 2009. A while later i was asked to sign a contract asking me to pay the full amoint of £475 if I left the compmany within a year, If I left the company after this date the sum payable was reduced to £???.
I didnt take a copy of this....... foolish me and now they have told me I will have £475 taken from my final salary. PS. I am due to start another job and handed in my notice September 14th and will leave my present company 12th October. I asked to see a copy of the contract I signed and after lots of ignoring my request have finally been told that they have "lost" it.

Does this mean that If there is no contract with my signature on it saying I would repay any money for my NVQ2, they cannot deduct any money from my final salary.
I did not complete my NVQ2 due to working an average of 70 hrs a week and being too tired to finish it. I also did not get any support during the year.

I have been told by friends that if there is no contract with my signature on it, then my employer cannot legally deuct any money from my final salary.

Amy advice would be most helpful

Many thanks in advance :o

Roobarb_73

Well, morally you did agree to the deduction being made, so you should pay it back. If it has been a year you could challenge the amount of the deduction, I guess they must have more training agreements in place than with you, so should know how much the repayment reduces by?

However, if you were to have the money deducted and put in an unlawful deduction from wages claim, without the contract or training agreement you'd signed consentng to the deduction, they'd find it very difficult to prove you'd agreed to the deduction...

bristol_pilot

Being asked to repay training money at all if you leave with no time limit would, I think, be considered an unreasonable contract term by a court. Don't pay the money back or agree to a deduction. If they make the deduction anyway, that is illegal and you can take them to court. An NVQ isn't worth £475 by the way. That might be the course fee, but it is 'worth' £0.

LittleVoice

bristol_pilot wrote: »

. An NVQ isn't worth £475 by the way. That might be the course fee, but it is 'worth' £0.

It is worth it if without it, or working towards obtaining it, means that you don't have a job.

The OP should keep the documentary evidence used for whatever, if any, units have been signed off.

annie_d

How old are you scorpio? i thought under 24's were funded by the governement. Our NVQ assessor said that Companies cannot recalim the cost via an employees wage.......but she could be wrong of course.

tripled

Roobarb_73 wrote: »

Well, morally you did agree to the deduction being made, so you should pay it back.

Being as the year has passed and the company are immorally trying to claim the full amount back rather than the reduced amount, I see no reason why the OP should pay it if they can get away with it, except for the burning bridges angle.

Googlewhacker

tripled wrote: »

Being as the year has passed and the company are immorally trying to claim the full amount back rather than the reduced amount, I see no reason why the OP should pay it if they can get away with it, except for the burning bridges angle.

I suspect it is a year from completion....

scorpio62

Thanks for your advice,

I am not trying to get out of paying for my "un-completed" NVQ but, am wanting to see the contract I signed because the amounts repayable were reduced after a year. As they have lost my contract, i have no way of knowing what the reduced amount is!

I was sure the amount was reduced by £100, maybe £150 but, not sure without seeing my contract.

All i want to know is can my company deduct money from my final salary without me seeing the contract I signed................... especially as i have now been told they have lost it??

scorpio62

SarEl

The problem here is that yes, they can deduct it from your final wage - whether they would be acting within the law in doing so is a very different matter. If employers never did anything that broke the law, tribunals would be redundant. They have your money, and if they take this out of the amount, you cannot stop them from doing so, but you may be able to make a legal claim for the money - depending on whether they find that contract or not.

Sambucus_Nigra

annie_d wrote: »

How old are you scorpio? i thought under 24's were funded by the governement. Our NVQ assessor said that Companies cannot recalim the cost via an employees wage.......but she could be wrong of course.

a - NVQs were funded if the criteria was met, and the funding was drawn down by the provider - which meant they also had to have a contract to do so.

b - this was not specifically age related [modern apprenticeships were age related, not NVQs].

c - your NVQ assessor was talking absolute rubbish, if a company writes it into the terms and conditions of an exmployment contract, nothing your assessor says will change this!