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In the absence of a clearly defined and signed training agreement I would let it go

If you use the search facility you will find lots of debate around this area.

Welcome to the communities

Hi

At the last company I worked for, we had exactly the same thing happen but for several people. As the company had no record of them signing and agreeing the percentage to be paid back should they leave, they had no choice but to let it go.
Lisa

In reply to Lisa:

S. 13(1) of the Employment Relstions Act 1996 reads:

“An employee shall not make a deduction from wages of a worker employed by him unless—

(a) the deduction is required or authorised to be made by virtue of a statutory provision or relevant provision of the worker’s contract, or

(b) the worker has previously signified in writing his agreement or consent to the making of the deduction.”

So, I’d think it is *possible* that a general provision in the contract of employment might suffice even though nothing relating to any specific course were subsequently separately signed but it would only be enforceable if it served as a genuine specific liquidated damages clause and not rather just as an overall deterrent to the employee leaving employment.

Also, I’d think not specifying a sliding scale of specific clawback percentages in advance in the contract possibly not necessarily fatal to enforceability of a reasonable clawback percentage the employer might determine, but that this would probably depend greatly on the precise contractual wording originally used.

Thus I personally wouldn’t be so very sure that this is in itself legally unenforceable (although it still might well be so). However, if not involving large sums of money, it’s probably not going to be at all worth taking the risk of trying to enforce something not entirely watertight and running the risk of losing any legal challenge.

In reply to David:

Hi David

Thank you. Very informative. The sums of money involved were not very large and although the majority of staff HAD signed the sliding scale.form for payback should they leave the company, a few hadn't been given the form to sign before the training took place.

My boss DID try to get them to sign retrospectively but failed to obtain their signatures before they left.
Lisa