THE COMPENSATION OF THE EXPENSE OF EMPLOYEE’S TRAINING

ECOVIS Miškinis, Kvainauskas ir partneriai advokatų kontora

The employer has an interest in trained workers and therefore foresees to secure the means for training. The problem arises when such a trained worker leaves the company and the employer suffers losses. The Labor code of the Republic of Lithuania provides a solution for such a case.

Article 95 part 5 declares that the employer is able to recover lost training efforts. It is declared that it is possible to place in the employment contract that the employee has an obligation to compensate the means for the training that were made in the last year. This term is counted from the day of the employment contract’s termination. The employer is able to recover the means for the training only if the employment contract is terminated because of the fault of the employee due to these causes:

1. the employee is not careful enough in doing his duties and a disciplinary sanction was applied to the employee in the last 12 months (Article 136 part 3 point 1);
2. the employee makes numerous violations of duties (Article 235, Article 136 part 3 point 2);
3. the employee wants to terminate the employment contract by an application, without a principal reason (Article 127 part 1).

The employer should inform, in written form, the employee, on future means for the training, in the case of non-information, the employer is not able to demand recovery of means for training. The employee must be careful and has to be interested in the amount of the future training efforts.

The employer should also properly choose the time of the training. There is no problem when the training is at the workplace during work hours. But if the training begins after working hours, the employee is able to refuse this training, or the employer has to pay for overtime.