Hi

New member here, i am hoping i get some advice here.

My Wife had started a job at a medical spa which does botox , skin facials. She worked there in May 2016, my wife started work but they were paying her such a low wage , she was reluctant to take the position, but she took it. The woman in charge had no idea how to run a medical spa at all and started to use the 12plus years knowledge my wife has .

Before my wife had started work the woman had said to my wife that if my wife leaves within two years she would have to pay back any training costs. My wife started work but never signed any contract stating that she would have pay anything back , even the offer letter had no reference to this. My wife went on two half days of training for laser training but never got a certificate of any sort.

This woman boss would contradict any ideas my wife brought up, my wife after a month wanted to discuss her wage as it was just not satisfactory of the work and experience she has. So my wife called a meeting with the woman boss and presented this to her, the woman boss did not even entertain the prospect of raising her salary at all.

So my wife decided to leave before all her ideas were going to be used, the woman boss has now sent a letter asking my wife to pay back training costs for the two days, but nothing was signed and not even a job description was given to my wife. I think personally this woman is bitter that my wife had the guts to leave and she is now asking for money to feed her own ego.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks

Unless the boss woman issues your wife with a claim from the court, then its pretty safe to either ignore completely or send ONE letter briefly stating she does not recognise any debt owed as no agreement was ever made and any future correspondence will not be entered into, should a claimform arrive, it would be vigorously defended and boss woman put to strict proof a debt is owed.

Personally i would ignore and wait for a Letter Before Action/Claim before sending anything.

Just send a letter asking for proof of the debt.

Also ask for any document you signed.

Since you didn't sign anything she would go away

I would just ignore this fit of pique. Chances are the more you try and accommodate any claim by even acknowledging her letters the more she will try and get one over on your wife. If she gets a proper lba from the ex-employer or her solicitor then respond saying no contractual obligation but other than that let it be and the lady will run out of steam. Probably wont get much right in the way of employemtn law anyway

It is my understanding that unless this has been properly agreed in writing with the employee before the start of the training then they wont normally be recoverable!

I still feel it is best that you, at least, respond to this first letter and point out the futility of her actions.

She might just go straight to the Courts and say based on your previous behaviour she reasonably believed that you will not respond to a Letter before Action.

You then have the headache of defending your action.

Though you might still win but why have the hassle, eliminate the risk now and save yourself a whole lot of trouble in the future.

Just send her a letter now.