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Training costs agreements - how enforceable?

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  • Yeah it's all on a piece of paper, I'm not trying to get out of it, as I say I won't be leaving yet, was just curious really about the legality of it all. They would also charge us £6,000 for the salary of our driving instructor, even though if we were not there they would have just been driving the same trains, just on their own instead, seems a bit off to me but I really don't know enough about it!
  • Yeah it's all on a piece of paper,

    You owe me £12k for my advice. It's on a piece of paper....
  • Well I mean we all signed the training agreement  :D I don't claim to have any kind of knowledge of the legality of it all haha
  • Jude57
    Jude57 Posts: 730 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 19 September 2021 at 11:53PM
    Yeah it's all on a piece of paper, I'm not trying to get out of it, as I say I won't be leaving yet, was just curious really about the legality of it all. They would also charge us £6,000 for the salary of our driving instructor, even though if we were not there they would have just been driving the same trains, just on their own instead, seems a bit off to me but I really don't know enough about it!
    You refer to trains and a driving instructor. This leads me to think your training will have been more than just sitting in a classroom while a more experienced employee talks you through the company's usual policies and procedures, which is what many of us will have undertaken and/or delivered.

    I'm not familiar with the requirements for qualifying as a train driver, but it's likely that the training agreement will be familiar to the relevant trades unions so I'd be asking them the questions you've raised here, if you're a union member.
  • This is all slightly hypothetical as I don't actually plan to leave my company yet, but I know a couple of people who do and it got me wondering...

    New starters with my company all sign a training costs agreement stating if you leave within 3 years of completion of training, you agree to pay back a proportion of the training costs they say they spent on you. Totally fair enough, makes sense they want to get something back from their investment. But I wondered how enforceable is it?

    I read that if the costs are actually what they did spend on you then yes, it's enforceable, but if it starts looking more like a penalty, then it starts to become a bit more cloudy? Is that the gist of it?

    They state the costs as being £16,000 but some parts of the breakdown look dubious to put it mildly, hence my question here  :)
    Short answer is yes. There does however need to be a specific agreement in place, unlike most other aspects of employment law where a "contract" can be formed in all kinds of ways without even being written down, let alone signed.

    A court will only enforce what is reasonable which may, under some circumstances, be less than the amount specified in the agreement.

    There is also the practical consideration. An employer can deduct any amounts owing from the employee's final pay, right down to zero. That leaves the employee having to fight to get the money back if they feel it is excessive.
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