The Complainant was employed as a Pilot for the Respondent airline from September 2016 until August 2018.  He had financed his training himself which was very costly. The Respondent airline then launched a new aircraft in 2016 which required further training. The Respondent was providing staff with a ‘training bond’ scheme so that they would be instructed on how to operate the new aircraft. When one of the Complainant’s colleague refused to sign up to this scheme, he was made redundant.

After the Complainant agreed to partake in the training bond scheme, he was informed that he had to be relocated from his base which was in London to Dublin. It was the second time in nine months that the Complainant had to relocate. The Complainant was offered a new contract which he signed, believing that as he had agreed to move to Dublin the training bond did not apply.

The Complainant then handed in his Notice of Termination, upon which the Respondent deducted €3,431.62 from his wages. The Complainant submitted that he rang HR to complain about this deduction from his salary, but they did not refund the sum of money.

The Training Bond provided a scaled level of repayment in the event of the Complainant leaving his position within 3 years of his training.  The Respondent submitted that this agreement authorises the deduction from salary. The Respondent further submitted that the sum for repayment was a fair and reasonable amount which could be taken from the Complainant’s salary as authorised under his Contract of Employment.

 In reaching their conclusion, the Adjudication Officer noted that the Respondent’s contract issued in 2016 does not authorise the deduction of training costs, nor had the Complainant consented to the deduction of training costs. Accordingly, the Adjudicating Officer ordered the amount of €3,431.62 be repaid to the Complainant combined with an additional sum of €1,583.82 for compensation.
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2019/august/adj-00016521.html