What do you think of having to repay training costs?

[Mapoftheproblematique]

A job which requires 6 days of in-house training and approx 5 hours of online training. I think this is paid in a lump sum of approx £300 (so below min wage) and this is not paid until after you've completed probation.
If you leave the company within a year, you are liable to repay all costs to the employer.
Do you think this is right/fair? I assume it's deducted from your wages, but if you leave before starting then I'm not sure how they recover the costs?
I've never experienced this before.

A weeks unpaid training (or below min wage) is not acceptable. They shouldn't be asking this of you.

The responses you're getting are to your other question. It's common to be asked to pay back the cost of a training course if you leave within a year.

It's my fault for signing the agreement :(

Did you not read it or did you just go with it?
Agree with pps that basic onboarding should be charged

It's illegal to operate like this.

You need an hourly rate for training.

If someone is up skilling and get a course paid for by the company that's different

No, not sure if it is legal or not, but if it is it shouldn’t be as first of all they are paying less than minimum wage for training for the role-transferable skills or not they are requiring this as a condition of employment. Secondly I am sure that it is illegal to not pay someone within the timescale of 30 days.
It sounds like a bad employer, like the ones a few decades ago would pay commission only and no basic wages. I don’t even like my team doing on going training at home as they aren’t getting paid let alone a whole week.

I need to seek professional advice

What's the job btw?

It's care work

Is the training mandatory for the job?

In which case speak to ACAS asap as I'm fairly sure that's illegal

Yes it is mandatory onboarding training

I did a care job
We were paid as normal for the training but yes sliding scale of repayment if you left before a year

I had this when I worked in the UK. Seems reasonable to me.

I surprised how many people are OK with this ...

Its mandatory training for you to do the job. You should be paid properly for it and with the next paycheck else they are taking your time with no recompense.

And pay it back? I could understand if they paid for you to do a professional qualification say a master's or college course or similar to enhance your skills and then you left. But for basic training in a job that many might find stressful and quit with a year because it doesn't work for them? That's not OK

We had a 1 hour mandatory training we had to do at home (no facilities for us to do it at work). We complained about it being free and got the hour added to our pay check because it wasn't ok

If the training is required for the job you shouldn't be required to pay it back. You are being docked wages.

You can bring this up with them, it's not legal.....

Not every clause in a contract is legal even if you sign to accept it.

Definitely call ACAS.

Also on the agreement I signed it said the training was 1 day (in house) however it changed to 5. I've also got this in writing from them.

This is fair surely only if you're also being paid your normal wage? Else, if you leave within the year, you're effectively giving back your only salary for that week.

I'd call and speak to ACAS about this @Mapoftheproblematique because this doesn't sound right.

£200 for several hours of e learning plus 6 days unpaid (4 days in house and 2 days shadowing) is certainly way below min wage and so I do need to contact acas

I did professional exams and at one point I would have had to repay £12k to my employer if I left! Although I would be walking away with a qualification, so it prob is fair, and the norm in that case is for your new employer to pay the costs.

In your case it absolutely does seem unreasonable and I think you should call ACAS! I don’t think £300 is a huge amount for an employer to cover tbh.

I think it can be normal to have to repay training costs if you leave within a certain period (although I think a lot of employers are taking the mick with it, it used to be applied to Chartered qualifications in professional jobs and similar, not anything more basic/in house that you only really need to be able to do the job they are employing you to do competently and safely) - but I guess whatever they put in the contract is what you have to accept.

I definitely think they should be paying you for the training though and paying you for it regardless of probation success/fail - might be worth checking if this contravenes national minimum wage legislation, I think you can ask HMRC about this?

Something to be aware of is that mandatory training costs are offset against National Minimum Wage. Therefore, if you are paid close to NMW, and the deduction would mean that, for that pay period, you would earn less than NMW for the hours worked, your employer wouldn't be able to make the deduction.

E.g you work 120 hours in a month at £10.50 per hour, earning £1260. £300 is deducted for training so you are paid £960, meaning you have only been paid £8 per hour - less than NMW. (Figures are approx, deduction would be after tax).

Sorry it's a drop feed but my 2 days of shadowing are included in this 'one off payment' that I'll get after 3 months.

Training has to be paid at at least minimum wage and any deductions from salary cannot take pay below minimum wage.

I was the employing manager a few years ago for a casual job (all student employees working for no more than 7 hours a week) and the normal "headline" pay rate was a bit more than minimum wage. I had to pay Training time at minimum wage whether or not they went on to do the job, and the only deduction I was allowed to make was to have the contract set out that they only got the main headline pay rate if they completed 12 weeks work after training, and if they didn't do that they only got minimum wage for hours done. But we had a draconian HR department who were dedicated to obeying employment legislation correctly rather than wiggling round it

How did I guess?

So sorry, you're being treated so appallingly for doing such essential work.