Leaving company repaying training costs

candytwinkle

Is this legal?
An employee is leaving the company he has worked for 9 years. As a mechanic part of his job role is to have regular training courses from the "brand" part of which is subbed by the brand and part by the company.
He has a new job to go to but is being asked to repay £1,000
of training fees
The company will not accept monthly repayments and want to take the whole amount from his final months pay.
He can't afford to repay that amount in one go and will have to turn down the new job offer.
Can they leaglly do this? he has asked for a breakdown and receipts to prove the cost of his training courses but they are unwilling to provide them.
Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks:)

krlyr

Did he sign anything to say he would be responsible for these costs?
I've had funding for college courses at my current employer and have not been asked to refund anything relating to the remaining year (I'm leaving at the end of this month).
I had no agreement with my employer though - I just asked about funding and my boss verbally agreed then paid the receipts. I know some others in my class have had to sign agreements that they will remain with their employer for a year/two years or so after completing their course, and imagine these have some kind of financial recourse for breaking this agreement.

zzzLazyDaisy

For training fees to be repayable you must have signed something agreeing to this before going on the training course, and the repayment must be reasonable. This may be a clause in your contract, but in that case you must have signed the contract for it to be valid (this is a departure from the normal rule that employment contracts do not have to be signed to be enforceable).

Similarly, in order for the employer to have the right to deduct the money from the final salary, you must have signed something agreeing to this, before the liability arose. Again, this may be a clause in the contract, which must have been signed by you.

candytwinkle

Thank you both for your replies both are useful. The contract only has a sentence saying the company reserves the right to deduct overpayment, training fees etc, nothing specific at all.
No written costs or paperwork prior to training commencing is ever issued. People are leaving and they are getting a telephone call from the receptionist/admin assistant saying you owe us £X amount of money and were taking it out of your final salary.
We work in the motor trade and up to date product knowledge is essential with new vehicles coming out every year. We have been told that the Vehicle brand are subsidising the training anyway but the Mechanics are having to repay the full cost of the course.

zzzLazyDaisy

First, did you sign the contract?

If not, the clause is unenforceable.

Even if you did sign the contract, which would give them a right to deduct money owed, I doubt that the part about training fees is enough to create a debt, as it should be a separate clause on its own, explaining how the debt would arise and how it would be calculated.

If they contact you to say they are going to deduct this money you should write to them (email is fine) and say something like '

'I refer your telephone call on [date] when you informed me that you are proposing to deduct [££] from my final salary in respect of training fees. I wish to make it clear that I do not accept that I owe this money and I do not consent to it being deducted from my wages. Please note, if you do deduct this money I will have no alternative but to commence legal proceedings. I trust this will not be necessary.'

To be honest you can't do much to stop them, but if they do still deduct the money, you should make a claim to the employment tribunal for unlawful deduction from wages. This can be done on-line, it is a simple process, and for the moment there is no fee for making a tribunal claim.