Refrigerant Handling update , who should pay???

Hiya, this is my first post so be kind,

basically my refrigerant handling will run out this year in July, and my boss says i need to pay for it, he is the director of a small refrigeration firm and i am his employee, i am not sub-contracted ect...

could anyone shine some light on this for me please? because it could end up being a poisonous situation at work for a compnay i enjoy working for, or could somebody find a legel link so i could have a copy of the laws regarding training ect, i have looked but i dont know what im searching for with legal jargen.

cheers!,
Sosmix

Ignore the idiot above this post More spam cr*p.
Well yours is a real dilemma. Basically you will have to sit the 2079 safe handling, if you wish to continue as a Refrigeration Engineer (Various levels of attainment apply).
Maybe there is something within employment legislation with regards to a employers liability to ensure their staff are adequately trained.
And you may be able to challenge him but as i think you are implying that would lead to conflict.
Tough one!
However I think your employer has to register his business as well. Part of the registration is Proving your employees are correctly trained.
So unless your employer is trying to push you out? You may have room for negotiation maybe with say sharing the costs?
Some of the more learned guys may be able to add to this answer?
Good Luck Grizzly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sosmix

Hiya, this is my first post so be kind,

basically my refrigerant handling will run out this year in July, and my boss says i need to pay for it, he is the director of a small refrigeration firm and i am his employee, i am not sub-contracted ect...

could anyone shine some light on this for me please? because it could end up being a poisonous situation at work for a compnay i enjoy working for, or could somebody find a legel link so i could have a copy of the laws regarding training ect, i have looked but i dont know what im searching for with legal jargen.

cheers!,
Sosmix

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Seems a bit tough on you but I would hazard a guess that your employer is not legally obliged to pay for your qualification.

Has your boss given any reason for wanting to do it this way? Maybe he is concerned about you leaving after getting the qualification. If this is the case perhaps you get it written into your contract that you agree to pay for the course, or percentage of, if you leave of your own choice within a certain period of time?

The only upside is you may find you can offset the costs of gaining the qualification against your income tax so it won't cost you as much as you think. You will have to check with the revenue about this but just make sure you book and pay for the qualification yourself and not your boss otherwise he may try to offset it against his own profit.

good luck,
regards,djbe.

In our firm the boss paid for the F-Gas course (7 of us) but if we leave in 2 years we have to pay the course fees back. Reason given were lost revenue, course fees, economic climate, blah, blah, blah.
Signed up because what choice did I have? Didn't really get a chance to look into the legal side of things but in a way I could see things from his point of view.
BUT - he has managed to but himself a flash motor so I wont feel so bad about taking the odd extended lunch break now.

Cheers,
Andy.

.

Legaly I don't think he has to pay, but he does have to have staff who
are qualified and use their qualification to gain full Fgas compliance.

So If he insists on you paying then pay, get the qualification and wait
for him to ask for your certificate number. He needs it to trade. Then tell
him it is your nimber, your qualification and you want recompence for him
using it.

No mater who pays for it, it will be your qualification and the company can't
use it without your permission.

If you politly pointed that out to the director he may come to some sort
of resonable compromise.

I know companies who pay for the qual but not the time off work (lost wages).
i also know of companies who pay for the training and exam but any ressits comes
out of the engineers pocket.

coolrunnings

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There is some really good advice in these posts which I totally agree with. The company does need to submit the details of their qualified engineers to refcom,quidos,stroma or bureau veritas depending on who they are registering with. And that will cost them up to 700GBP to register. If they are a larger company with 50 engineers or more you can imagine the costs to cover the training as well. I've heard from both sides of the arguement with the guys doing the training. Whist I dont know of a real legal link that would make the company responsible for payment, it really does effect both parties. The company needs to be registered and prove that they are using qualified engineers, where as the engineer needs to make sure he is skilled and qualified to do the job. I think this has been a major effect of the downturn in the economy. 10years ago companies use to pay for all sorts of training but now we are seeing that passed on to the engineer. I even know of apprentices who dont get paid to attend training.
So at the end of the day I would settle for a compromise. Either get them to pay for it and you will reimburse them if you leave or pay for it now and try to get paid for your time.
You may also want to think about which course you do because city and guilds is forever (until they change the regs again) whereas CITB has to be renewed and you will have to pay for it again.
Try not to get into an arguement over it though. It isnt worth it. If you left the company then you still wouldnt be qualified and it would make it harder for you to be emplyed by another company. They wont want the responsibility of getting you trained either and will probably say the same thing.