Contract confusion (first aid)

11amie11

Hey, just wondering if anyone could help me. So I work in a creche and when i joined the company, my contract stated "first aid and manual handling will be provided". now to me, this sounds like it would be free for me? But the owner contacted our manager a few weeks ago telling her she wantes us all to be first aid trained. The owner also is actually trained to teach first aid herself and offered to teach us for fifty euro each? Now if i was her, I'd obviously teach my staff for free? what a benefit to her to have all her staff trained in this like! So we all said no to this 50euro and a couple weeks later our manager found a first aid course on groupon for 35euro and booked us in for it. i have to pay this week for it and before doing so was looking for advice. should i have to pay if my contract says it will be provided? any help would be appreciated! Thanks

Stheno

Being very pedantic it depends on the wording of your contract.

If what you posted above is correct, then providing access to the training doesn't imply that it will be paid for, so you could be liable for the cost.

I'm not sure though if creches are obliged to have staff trained.

It's not dissimiliar from a company offering to fund training, then requiring staff to pay it back if they leave within a certain time.

tatli_lokma

IMO (and this is just my interpretation) if it says something will be provided then this implies that the training is supplied and paid for by the employer. If the employee is going to pay, it would normally say something like the employer 'will provide training opportunities which the employee can avail of at their own expense' or something to that effect.

If for example, you were attending a business seminar or networking event and it said 'lunch will be provided' that means lunch is provided at the expense of the host. My interpretation is that the same goes in your situation - if they say they are going to provide training that means they are going to pay. Otherwise they are not providing anything, but merely facilitating or offering the opportunity.

Given that the owner then wanted to charge her own staff for this, it looks to me like they are trying to pull a fast one, which is a horrible way to treat your staff, especially in a sector where good staff with qualifications can make or break your business and where the staff generally get paid very little for the work they do anyway.

I'd tell her where to stick her training - and she'd need to use her own first aid skills to remove it!

Mrs OBumble

I agree with the last post .. except that really she should have insisted that you were trained before even allowing you to start work, and first aid really should be part of the core-skills that any childcare worker brings to the job.

TBH, your choices seem to be to pay for the training, or to find another job.

Only you can judge what your chances of another job are.