Employer refusing pay for training time

This is a common issue and the answer depends on a few key factors, including whether you are classified as a worker or employee, the nature of the training, and what your contract says.

Legal position:

Under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, time spent on training counts as working time for the purposes of calculating whether you have been paid at least the national minimum wage. This applies where the training is required or arranged by your employer, or where you are required to attend as a condition of your employment.

The key distinction is between mandatory and voluntary training:

1. If the training is compulsory, meaning your employer requires you to attend, whether during or outside your normal working hours, that time must be counted as working time and must be paid at least at the national minimum wage rate. If paying you nothing for those hours would bring your effective hourly rate below the national minimum wage, your employer is in breach of the law.

2. If the training is genuinely voluntary and you choose to attend of your own accord, with no pressure or requirement from your employer, the position is less clear-cut and your employer may not be obliged to pay you, depending on the circumstances and what your contract says.

Contractual position:

Your contract of employment or any applicable staff handbook may say something specific about training pay. If your contract provides that training time is paid, your employer must honour that term regardless of whether the training is mandatory or voluntary. If your contract is silent, you fall back on the statutory position above.

What counts as working time:

For the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998, mandatory training also counts as working time. This matters for calculating your maximum weekly hours under the 48-hour limit and for rest break entitlements.

Practical considerations:

If you believe your employer is refusing to pay you for mandatory training and this brings your pay below the national minimum wage, you have several options:

1. Raise it informally with your employer or line manager first, setting out clearly which training sessions you attended and that they were compulsory.

2. If that does not resolve it, put your concern in writing as a formal grievance under your employer's grievance procedure.

3. You can make a complaint to HMRC's national minimum wage enforcement team, which investigates underpayment. This can be done anonymously and there is no cost to you.

4. You could bring a claim to the employment tribunal for unlawful deduction from wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 if you believe you are owed pay. The normal time limit is three months less one day from the date of the last underpayment, though there is the early conciliation process through Acas to go through first, which pauses the clock.

Important factors that may affect your position:

Whether the training was truly mandatory or genuinely voluntary can sometimes be disputed. If, for example, you would face disciplinary consequences for not attending, or it is a prerequisite for keeping your role, it is very likely to be treated as mandatory regardless of how your employer describes it.

Also consider whether you are an employee, a worker, or genuinely self-employed, as national minimum wage protections apply to workers and employees but not to the genuinely self-employed.

If you can share more detail about the type of training, whether attendance was compulsory, and what your contract says, I can give you a more specific answer.