Relocation Expenses Claw-back Policy by Employer

expat_d

Hello,

Employers have claw back policy on the relocation expenses if a foreign employee leaves the employer before 2 years. I recently came accross this document online stating that employers should not recover or charge the employee for the cost that they have paid for travelling to take up the job in Ireland. There is no minimum duration mentioned in the act. These both sound conflicting, can anyone throw some light on this ?

Employment Permits Act 2006

Section 23 - Subsection (2)

skallywag

I definitely know from experience that it is quite normal for an employer to state that they will seek the repayment of relocation expenses which were paid as an extra (i.e. outside of the agreed salary, etc.) if the employee does not stay with the company in that location for a specific minimum time.

I cannot help you with the exact legality of the same.

I do find such a clause fair though, e.g. imagine the case that an employee receives these extra payments, and then leaves after three months.

Dodge

The above law applies to workers who move here to work for a specific company as allowed by the employment permit (the old work permit). It effectively means companies can’t charge employees for taking up jobs. If they have paid for the travel/relocation, the company cannot seek to ‘claw it back’ from their wages or salary.

It doesn’t apply to those working without an employment permit (eg EU nationals) and it doesn’t supersede any agreement between the company and employee on extras to be paid (eg if Salary is €50k and there’s an agreement for location costs of €3k, that €3k can be clawed back (per agreement/contract))