Employment Law: Pay For Training Which Is Essential To The Job?

[mcneil]

Hi all,

I am a lifeguard and part of the role being a lifeguard is that I must attend staff training once a month. I am being refused pay for the staff training that I attend. Is this even legal? It is a job requirement for me to keep up to date by regularly attending staff training and practising first aid and water survival and rescue techniques. I believe that this is unreasonable for management not to pay me at all for any essential training that is a requirement for my job role.

Please can you give me any advice at all.

Thanks

[DJHawkes]

does this training take place at your place of work? Do you have to sign in and when you sign in are you then covered by their insurance as a staff member? If they are not paying you to attend the training how are you insured on their business premises?

[Mamyalynne]

What does your contract of employment state re the training sessions?

[Mass_Hysteria]

I believe that you should be paid for attending training courses outside you normal working hours. Contact your company HR department for clarification.

[pixie373]

They have to make sure you're not "out of pocket", so even if your contract says training days are included, you can claim expenses.

[tamborine]

Its surely a priority for your job. Your employment is dependant on your qualifications and if your employer feels youre lacking its for you to keep up to scratch to keep the job. You could ask for a pay rise in recognition of your updated qualifications.

[IggyB]

Tambo there won't be any further qualification this is mandatory routine training for all staff in excess of previous qualifications.

You and your employer are free to agree training is paid or unpaid, you would need to refer to your contract of employment to confirm whether this is covered. If it's not explicitly stated then payment would be expected as it has all the attributes of working duties.

[factor-fiction]

It does depend on the contract. In one job I always worked Monday- to Friday although my contract said something about 'working the hours necessary' so very occasionally i was expected to travel somewhere on a Sunday evening or attend a training session on Saturday morning and I received mo extra pay.
But if the training is as regular as once a month i think it would be unusual for the training to stipulate that you must attend for no pay.
Are you sure the allowance isn't factored in to your normal pay?

[boxtops]

It depends entirely on what it says in your contract of employment. I know many small employers with part-time staff who will fund a certain number of training days in a year (normally about 5), if anything else is required then it's either negotiated or the employee does it in their own time. Not at all uncommon in health settings, IMO.

What do your colleagues in the same role feel about this?

[murraymints]

I know in Edinburgh training is given on shift both poolside and off !...that's a public employer not private pools..

[Maydup]

It's unthinkable to expect you to do such regular and essential training in you own time. Unless you have a trainee role with a day release or apprenticeship arrangement, then be strong and ask for this to be arranged in work time. If the training is off site be reasonable and just claim for the time spent training and not travelling. But if the distance is more than say 10miles then claim expenses.

[boxtops]

I don't understand what sort of training you have to do so frequently. We have to keep our life support/resus training up to date, but it's a half day session once a year. I appreciate your context is different, but twelve different topics?

[themas]

As already said, you must check your employment contract. It is presumably an employment condition in the contract that you carry out the training & iy seems extraordinary that they expect you to do this as often as each month in your own time without pay.

Once you've looked at the contract you could ring the ACAS helpline to see if they can give you any advice.

[browntrout]

Part of the role of being a lifeguard is NOT that you HAVE to attend training once a month. But if you do undertake approved (by the royal society) training regularly, then re-qualifying in two years is much easier because you won't have to do all of the course again. You need only re-take the tests.