Hi Paleto; It is normal for most companies to request some form of commitment and / or payback when time and money is invested in training. However; these contracts must be seen as fair and not a way of penalising you in the event you decide to terminate your employment. As always there are exceptions; was it a term of your employment that you did the training in the first place i.e. if you don’t do it you will not be employed, did you request the training or is it general training that is carried out all the time? You say the amount they are “charging” you is disproportionate, can you elaborate? 1.The actual value of monies paid back would generally be the amount that was paid for the course, value of time taken away from the business and any other direct costs incurred. 2. It would be normal for the repayment costs to be reduced as time goes on after all; the employer would have received some benefit from the training. In the event you left your employ after a period of time and the employer requested all the monies be repaid this could be seen as penalising you and would not be upheld. i.e On leaving during training or within 6 months of completion Repay 100% of fees On leaving between 6 months and 9 months of completion Repay 75% of fees On leaving between 9 months and 12 months of completion Repay 50% of fees On leaving between 12 and 24 months of completion Repay 25% of fees 3. Not too sure on this one, were you forced to do the training? I am sure there is someone here that can answer this for you! 4. As above; the contract would be deemed unfair in the event it was viewed to be penalising you. 5. This is another clause that is quite normal I do not believe that it would apply internally. On your second post; yes you have signed a contract and yes it will be binding unless... it is unfair and seen to be penalising you. The employer has the right to recover their costs but only those that reflects their loss. Hope this helps S-J

Hi Honeybee! Of course I can see both sides of the debate.... I am HR! . Thank you for your welcome, and thank you to all on here that have given me another source of valuble information to which I hope I can add at some point. S-J

OUCH! I stumbled across this site on Friday and have been back and forth ever since. The advice and comments given are extremely valuable and interesting however; as an HR Manager I feel I must defend our profession and support Ell-enn! HR Managers (should) work hard to prevent the issue below ever happening and whilst we work hard to facilitate the Company’s need this is done by ensuring all employees are treated fairly and procedures are in place and then followed! soniczed & zazen.warrior; you have obviously had bad experiences... my meetings (with permission) are recorded with a disc being handed over with the typed up copy. They are never released until all parties have signed them, no I would not be able to sleep at night if I had falsified them...