hello all, i’m new to this and think this site is as good as it get’s,anyway…
the story so far, over a year ago now i was working for a nationwide builder’s merchant when i was offered a chance to train as a class 2 driver with them.i took up there offer and ahead i went with a promise of a healthy pay rise and the freedom of driving a wagon for them. i had to sign an agreement to repay the “training loan” if i ever left the job. anyway i passed then a pathetic pay rise of £200 a year and then no wagon to drive. to further the insult my brother in law took his class 2 with his employer but they used eu funding so he is not tied to his employer. i confronted my manager about his so called promise’s and he basically said “like it or lump it”,my reply was " your job then. i went straight onto another builder’s merchant doing the job i was trained to do, i’m now on 4 grand a year more and no weekend work . i’m in the process of being taken to court for the repayment of the"training loan". all i want to say is that companies with these repayment clause’s with pay are nothing else but slave labourer’s and i hope when reading this some of you don’t fall pray like me…
Was it actually a loan or a training bond? (were you expected to pay back so much a week or was it just if you left?)
I ask this cos I got my bus licence with a “bond” it was a 2 year bond, if i left before 2 years i had to pay some of the fee back.
When I left just over a year later, they made lots of threats but never took it to court. The union’s view was that these “documents” we had signed were not legally binding (there was a number of us leaving early at that time. In fact one guy i trained with refused to sign it and still got trained anyway)
Wether this situation has changed in the last few years I do not know.
It also looks like they have failed to meet their end of the agreement as well.
IMO it will never get to court, however if you are in any doubt get some advice from a local soliciter. Most of them have a free surgery these days.
As a verbal contract is as legally binding as a written one, if they said they were going to train you for a job & if you left that job within a certain time period then… But it seems from what you have said they trained you for a job & you then never did it so you they failed to meet the contract also.
You need to see a solicitor.
Like Sniper I gained my PSV via an employer, & like him I know many drivers who left early, the company use to chase people, but if they did not pay up the cost of pursuing the case meant they dropped it.
Welcome to TruckNetUK, and I apologise for having to move the thread to a more relevant location.
Some questions. Have they actually begun proceedings, or is it still at the ‘threats’ stage’? If they do take action it will probably be through the Small Claims Court and, whilst I’ve never been to one, I understand the procedure is more akin to a ‘chat around the table’ than a formal Court hearing.
What was your Job Description. Were you employed as a Yard Hand with the prospect of occasional driving or were you employed as a (Trainee) Driver. If the latter, and the job did not measure up to the expectations that were promised, then I would be inclined to take the stance of being “Constructively Dismissed” in that the employment did not constitute what you had been led to expect, and that when you took your concerns to Management, they were unwilling to consider your frustrations, thereby leaving you with no alternative but to resign.
I can foresee that presented with that type of scenario, a nationwide company would receive little sympathy from the Chairman of the Court., and although he may still find against you, the amount would be substantially reduced.
daxi:
As a verbal contract is as legally binding as a written one,
Sorry mate as I found out to the tune of £5312.00 in May last year, a verbal contract means nothing whatsoever
And that came in the Employment Tribunals report, I could not produce written signed agreements therefore she won her case Despite witnesses giving evidence that the agreements were made verbally and the ones that were written in her contract of employment had been taken when she stole the copy COE from the office files
back again,there actually issueing a ccj against me at the moment. the letter came from the court,previous to this they said that they would persue it regardless of cost to them. multi million against me, there nothing but arse wipe’s…
Yep Bear we paid up in Sept, we decided to look at it as a lifetime investment, having borrowed over £7500 from me and the wife in 4 years without being asked to pay it back, we decided that £5312 was peanuts in what she cannot borrow from us now or in the future as we severed all ties altogether.
But I endeavour now to make sure any family businesses are fully aware of what happened when I had verbal agreements and did not protect the Contract of Employment from the possibility of being removed.
One expensive lesson, but a wealth of information was gained from it
Verbal agreements are not worth the breath they are spoken with
alan4400:
back again,there actually issueing a ccj against me at the moment. the letter came from the court
Easy sorted with a CCJ, just make an offer of £5 per week, the court proceedings cannot persue if they’ve had an offer from you and you keep to it
Just make sure your expenditure is around the same as your income well it is winter so leccy and gas bills will be higher along with petrol for car, insurance road tax etc etc etc
Alan i worked at travis in Newark so i might know you, or you might know me?.
Do they have something in writing to say you will pay it back?, and also if you check this out i think you,ll find that it is a training expense so actually doesnt cost them anything as it is written off.
((Tell Redmile to ■■■■ off ishe stuill shagging tracy the rep at Newark and does his woman know yet■■?;););)?))
what’s your first name jammy? if i ever see him i’ll tell,then smack him one… anyway i make a regular habit of driving past the yard in my new merc wagon beeping my horn as i know it wind’s him up when the lad’s tell him…
bumped into steve acko the other day and gave him one of my pay slips just so he could show redmile what they should be earning…
where you working now jammy? at a rough guess it’s far better
The agency I was working for had a training school and offered to put me through my class 2. I took their offer and I had to pay half of the training costs back over 10 weeks and they would cover the rest provided I worked for them for 1 year.
I had been working at 3663 through them for the best part of a year on 7.5 tonne work. As soon as I passed my test I was back in there. They started paying me different rates each week ranging from £5.50 to £6.50 an hour (their rate for class 2 is £6.50). Some weeks I got overtime after 40 hours, other weeks 50 hours. They would not give me a copy of my contract (which I am entitled to). When I brought these issues up I just got excuses from them. In the end I left.
A few months later they took me to court for the other half of the money. At court the dippy idiot from my agency office (the owner never showed his face) didn’t even know how much I owed them! Waste of time, another date was set. This time they used a solicitor and I lost because I didn’t submit a letter to their solicitor that they had sent to me.
Beware, if you represent yourself, submit EVERYTHING that you wish to use as evidence. I had a strong case, letters from the boss saying that I should have been paid x-amount blah, blah, apologising etc.
