Anyone any good with legal advice?

The other half under went so special trainning in work to dispense animal drugs.
she never signed any contract but now they are babbling about her paying the cost of the course if she leaves within 2 years?

where does she stand with this?
is it legal?

Cheers all!

yes, if its in the employee handbook.

By virtue of the fact that she has been doing the job, is contract enough (in the eyes of the law) which works both ways.

Lots of companies have re-imbursement clauses for high value training. mine does for example.

Not sure on the legal stuff but if i go on any courses at work i have
to sign something saying after 6 months i pay half and after 1 year i pay nowt this is only if i leave
Does here contract say anything about training?
I would of thought if she signed nowt theres nowt the company can do.

There is nothing metioned in the handbook, but its about 15 years old!
nothing has been mentioned about a training scheme but now they are on about a £1500 "training fee"!

So its a fair old lump but the job she trained for she probably does about for about 1/4 of the time that shes in work!

Whether it's enforceable or not it would cost them more than £1500 in lawyers to get it back.
If it wasn't made clear before the training, and there's nothing written down anywhere (signed or not) then they have little possibility of success in a court.

edit to add: ignore everything we say and get proper advice before doing anything

[Edited on 7/2/12 by iank]

Thats pretty much what i thought about it.........



Time to clear the desk and leg it!

We've got a 2 year tie-in clause if we leave after significant training (e.g. professional accounting qualification etc.). The amount "owed" decreases by half after the first year.

That needs to be written in a training and development contract which should have been signed somewhere (or otherwise in the employee handbook).

I also don't recall anybody ever having been chased up for it if they DID leave before the 2 years was up as it's an awful lot of work. Depends more on how busy the HR department is than anything else.

Recoupment of training cost clauses are common and getting more so. However without agreement (i.e. a contractual term) there is no right to recover sums spent by the employer on training. It is true that the terms of an employment contract can be hard to identify. Sometimes an employee handbook forms part of the contract sometimes it does not. There can be oral terms, terms agreed with a union, terms implied by custom and practice ...it can get tricky.

The employer could also seek to impose new terms after the training has taken place. However they could really only do so by threatening to dismiss if no agreement is forthcoming. If they did dismiss it might be quite difficult to show that the dismissal would be fair (for unfair dismissal purposes).

This is looking like an essay - sorry!

The simple answer is that if your wife has not agreed to repay any training costs then the employer cannot make her.

Cheers 1 and all!

Worth checking her contract doesnt mention the 'current handbook' as allthough the handbook she was given maybe 15yrs old, the new one may mention it. Allthough she should have been notified or given a copy if it was.