Study fees

School and training employee

Employers are expected to invest in employees to ensure that they can continue to do their best work and develop. In any case, employees are entitled to the training necessary to perform their job and remain in service. In any case, the absence of the necessary training that the employer should have offered cannot be a reason for dismissal. This is enshrined in the law.

Mandatory training

Employers are obliged to enable their employees to undergo training necessary for the performance or continuation of their jobs. Working time must also be made available for this purpose. In other words, the training must be possible in the boss’s time. So what training is mandatory exactly? In any case, all training that follows from the law or a collective labour agreement. But also a compulsory annual certificate, safety training, language course or training required by a trade association for professional competence or compulsory training as part of reintegration or an improvement process.

Study costs

The costs for this compulsory training are entirely borne by the employer and may not be passed on to the employee since August 2022. Those costs may include registration fees of the training institute, tuition fees, study materials and travel expenses. Ultimately, the employer benefits from the employee’s increased knowledge and skills, if all goes well. Employers, however, are -not unjustifiably- afraid that shortly after the training, the employee will leave for another employer or start for himself and they will have incurred all those costs for nothing.

Invalid study expenses clause

To prevent the employer from seeing this investment go up in smoke, many employees have agreed on a study cost clause stating that employees must repay (part of) the study costs upon leaving employment. But beware, since 1 August 2022, all study cost clauses related to mandatory training are null and void. That is, these study cost clauses are simply no longer valid and the employer can no longer invoke them, even if they were mutually agreed before 2022.

Exception

For non-compulsory training, however, a study expenses clause may still be concluded. For example, when an employee takes a course on his or her own initiative that is not directly related to the job. Or when it concerns a diploma the employee should already have had when starting work. A so-called professional qualification. Such as having a C driving licence to be able to perform on the job as a truck driver.

Conditions for a valid education clause

A repayment arrangement may be entered into for the latter category of training. It is then agreed that if the employee leaves the employment before completing the training or within a certain period thereafter, the employee must repay all or part of the study costs to the employer. However, a study expenses clause must meet the following conditions to be valid at all.

Advice

If you plan to draw up a study costs clause for an employee, or if you want to reclaim study costs from an employee, first assess whether the study is compulsory or not. Get proper advice on this.