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Repaying training costs

duchessgummybuns
Posts: 1 Newbie
Hello all!
My other half is currently working with a domiciliary care agency however the company is a monumental disorganised mess; they rarely provide him with the information he needs to provide care to the clients, including failure to inform him of the clients careplan, failure to supply keysafe codes to clients houses (whilst also claiming clients do not have keysafes when they infact do, resulting in a few poorly people having to atrempt to answer the door themselves), agreeing careplans with clients involving so-called 'invasive' care (such as changing dressings etc) then sending carers who have not been trained in these procedures/are specifically trained NOT to do them and a variety of other incidents.
He is on a zero hour contract, where he e-mails the company with his availability for the week and they send him back a rota around that. He is not paid for his travel time and is not reimbursed for his travel either, which means from time to time he is put on 13 hour working days where he is only actually paid for 6/7 hours. Some weeks they fail to provide him with a payslip and other employees have told him that he should expect to be paid late frequently (which thankfully hasn't happened yet).
For this (and a whole host of other reasons, i forget some as there seem to be so many issues!) he has decided that it would be best for him to resign. He already has something else lines up so there is no issue with that. However, he is slightly hesistant as he made an agreement with the company that he would have to repay his training costs should he leave before working with them for 3 months (or a certain amount of hours). When he was first hired and signed the contract and provided his payment details, the administration employee took his debit card and made a photocopy of the front and back, telling him it was standard company policy which he did not question. They have not taken any money from his paychecks to cover the training (which was 3 days of health and safety training including fire safety, coshh, food sanitation, medicine administration, first aid and then a few bits of legal stuff about safeguarding) and he is now under the impression that if he hands in his notice they will just be using his card information to debit his account immediately. I've looked around online a bit and read that health and safety training deemed necessary to do the job must be provided free of charge, so i'm unsure as to whether they should be really charging him for this? I also can't seem to find much about whether they are allowed to just take and keep his card details like his cvv number etc.
We are planning to go to CAB to ask them about it all before he gives in his notice (which is 4 weeks) however thought i would ask here also as all you lovely people seem reasonabley in the know!
Also, if he was to give in his notice, would he be allowed to just give zero availability for the four weeks as he is on a zero hour contract?
Many thanks and sorry for the mega long post! Hope you're all having lovely days!
My other half is currently working with a domiciliary care agency however the company is a monumental disorganised mess; they rarely provide him with the information he needs to provide care to the clients, including failure to inform him of the clients careplan, failure to supply keysafe codes to clients houses (whilst also claiming clients do not have keysafes when they infact do, resulting in a few poorly people having to atrempt to answer the door themselves), agreeing careplans with clients involving so-called 'invasive' care (such as changing dressings etc) then sending carers who have not been trained in these procedures/are specifically trained NOT to do them and a variety of other incidents.
He is on a zero hour contract, where he e-mails the company with his availability for the week and they send him back a rota around that. He is not paid for his travel time and is not reimbursed for his travel either, which means from time to time he is put on 13 hour working days where he is only actually paid for 6/7 hours. Some weeks they fail to provide him with a payslip and other employees have told him that he should expect to be paid late frequently (which thankfully hasn't happened yet).
For this (and a whole host of other reasons, i forget some as there seem to be so many issues!) he has decided that it would be best for him to resign. He already has something else lines up so there is no issue with that. However, he is slightly hesistant as he made an agreement with the company that he would have to repay his training costs should he leave before working with them for 3 months (or a certain amount of hours). When he was first hired and signed the contract and provided his payment details, the administration employee took his debit card and made a photocopy of the front and back, telling him it was standard company policy which he did not question. They have not taken any money from his paychecks to cover the training (which was 3 days of health and safety training including fire safety, coshh, food sanitation, medicine administration, first aid and then a few bits of legal stuff about safeguarding) and he is now under the impression that if he hands in his notice they will just be using his card information to debit his account immediately. I've looked around online a bit and read that health and safety training deemed necessary to do the job must be provided free of charge, so i'm unsure as to whether they should be really charging him for this? I also can't seem to find much about whether they are allowed to just take and keep his card details like his cvv number etc.
We are planning to go to CAB to ask them about it all before he gives in his notice (which is 4 weeks) however thought i would ask here also as all you lovely people seem reasonabley in the know!
Also, if he was to give in his notice, would he be allowed to just give zero availability for the four weeks as he is on a zero hour contract?
Many thanks and sorry for the mega long post! Hope you're all having lovely days!
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Comments
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I know in my old workplace we had a clause to say if we left within 6 months we would have to pay back £100 I think it was per day of training, so it wouldn't surprise me having that clause to be honest. Could he hold on until the end of the 3 month or alternatively just alter his 'availability' to just a couple of evenings and weekends as while not ideal at least it will save probably a few hundred and will save you some money and although will be tiring it should only be for a few weeks:T:T :beer: :beer::beer::beer: to the lil one
:beer::beer::beer:
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It would be illegal for them to authorise payment for anything on his card, but I hope he realises how stupid he was to hand it over. He needs to notify his bank that his card details have been disclosed to a third party, and get the card replaced.
This kind of clause isn't uncommon, and it is often abused by care companies. In law they cannot charge anything more than the real value of the course, but they often do, and then you are stuck either trying to chase it or losing out.
I wouldn't normally advise in this way, but these companies are not nice people... so, wait until you are paid, give them one weeks notice, and go off sick for the week. You can self-certify for a week, so they can't do a thing about it. Just make sure the money is in the bank and that card has been cancelled first. Then, if they come after you for the money, deal with it as a debt. If the cost they claim is not unreasonable, you could agree to repay it on a plan, which gives you control. If they don't agree, then you have to decide whether there is a risk of court action and what you would do. Many of these companies only send threatening letters that sound legal and hope you will give up. But I can't guarantee that, of course.0 -
Also, tell him to report any issues with care or safeguarding to the local authority as they sound awful!0
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