Republic of Ireland Law
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1. The first thing is if you signed a contract which states that you must pay back training costs of €1,500 when you joined the company, then this will still be binding upon you after 2 months in the company if it is expressed to be this way up till the 9 month point in employment. There is nothing illegal about this type of clause in an employment contract. So, I regret to say that if you signed such a clause, it will still be binding upon you. This would apply even though the training was carried out by another staff member. The law does not prevent this being the case merely because no outside trainer was involved. Similarly, the law does not prevent this type of "costs of training recoupment" clause being invalid merely because you didn't receive any qualifications from an external body. So, if you leave, you will have to pay back the monies, except if the company decide not to pursue for them.
2. The second thing is that there is no law against requiring payslips to be provided with each salary payment. The law does provide that the monies must be paid into the employee's bank account. Essentially, once the employee gets paid, the notion of a payslip is not required. This is no longer something which most companies do, since the introduction of electronic account transfers as the preferred and required method of payment of employees.
3. The third thing you should be aware of is that you are entitled to full particulars of your employment contract under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994 as well as the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2018. So, you should write to the HR Department in your employer or ask for the terms which govern your employment. If the terms don't include the recoupment of training costs proviso, then they will be deemed to have been waived. So, you should write and see what terms and conditions are supplied to you.
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5. If you have any further queries, I will be happy to help. Is it the case that you want to leave the employment because it has not measured up to your expectations?
6. The thing I would say, is that if you are unhappy, you should seek to negotiate your way out with your employer. Essentially, if it is not working out from your perspective, they won't seek to tie you in. These employment recoupment of training costs clauses are merely there to prevent abuse, not to catch someone who is genuinely not happy in an employment and who merely wants to move on. Don't feel hemmed in by the issue. Seek to negotiate out of it.
7. Be aware that from the employer's perspective, there is nothing really lost, even if a figure of €1,500 has been put on the costs. So, you should simply seek to sit down with the decision maker in the company, who can release you from the employment, and negotiate you way out, without being hamstrung with this recoupment of training costs clause.
8. In life, not everything works out. So, you may find that your employer might already have picked up on the fact you are not fully happy in the role you have been trained into.
9. OK, Best wishes, Please Rate the answer.