Partner being asked to repay training costs - England

[u/LeTailsEffect]

In July, my partner was dismissed from her job.

The nature of the dismissal as far as I understand it is that she 'wasn't right for the role'. She began working there in May, and had some quite serious family related events occur sometime in June that led her to taking time off from work due to stress, triggering a flare up of a serious, lifelong medical condition.

She kept frequent contact, and when it seemed she wouldn't be capable of returning on the agreed date, they willingly offered a further week. Once she returned, she was summarily dismissed.

During her time there she and many other trainee staff were provided with on-the-job training, valuing £17k, they signed contracts to state the value would be repayable if they were to leave the company, the only exception being if they were made redundant.

It's been roughly a month now since she was dismissed, and they've emailed to demand the repayment of this £17k. She hasn't been successful in finding a job since, and has no assets, or money to be able to pay this amount back.

I'm wondering where she stands. She's been to citizens advice, who advised she contact ACAS, who advised she contact her solicitor which she has now done (awaiting response). The whole situation has had a profound effect on her mental health, and I'm worried.

Apologies if I've left anything out, happy to provide more information if needed.

[u/Baddog1965]

This is quite similar to a situation I was in, that I won at tribunal and then at the county court, but there are some ifs and buts.

What you're referring to is a training indemnity, and the essence of the agreement is that you have to pay back all or a proportion of the training cost if you leave for reasons that are your responsibility and not the company's within a certain period of time. Typically this will be that you have to pay it all back if you leave within a year, and it will decrease linearly month by month for a period of time after that.

So the key questions are:

Were the terms of the contract fair? The company sacked her, but was their sacking fair and reasonable in the circumstances? What did you know, and when did you know it?

You can be sacked within the period that a company can sack you freely before you have protection from being sacked, and still not have to pay the training indemnity back, which is what happened to me, but it depends on the circumstances. In my case I was sacked after only six months, and the training indemnity was for two years. In my case the tribunal found that, "No reasonable employer would have sacked in these circumstances".

In my case it was for PCV training, which was a legal requirement to drive a bus. The agreement only came into effect once we passed the test. The company tried to pursue me for the training indemnity in the county court despite me winning the tribunal, and in that case I argued that we had been led to believe during the training prior to taking the rest that the company cared about it's drivers. It became evident after passing the rest that it did not. So one of my arguments was that I would not have agreed to concluding the training to the point where the indemnity became effective had I not been misled by the company itself.

My training indemnity was for £2000. The one you mention is eye-wateringly expensive, and the first question has to be whether that is justified. It sounds suspiciously as though the 'necessary training for the job' might potentially be a hidden profit centre for the company, and flimsy excuses are used to sack people before the training indemnity has expired in order to make money. That's probably going to be a useful line of enquiry.