Legal Eye: Before they're off

But, with new EU funds available and additional Polish tax breaks, employee training is getting easier on the bottom line. Be careful, however. Before blithely agreeing to your employee's request for that week-long course in Zakopane in February, you may want to get some things in writing.

To send, or not to send

It's not enough to decide that employees could use some additional training in one of the post-graduate courses for which EU funding is available. As an employer, you must decide whether to officially send your employee on the course or merely allow your employee to attend. The difference between allowing and officially sending has a significant impact on wages, vacation time, and post-course obligations.

Keeping it separate

By allowing an employee to attend a course, the employer basically stays out of the process. Unpaid leave may or may not be granted. If the employee needs to take off time from work, you and the employee may agree on a reduction of pay to reflect the amount of time off. The only benefit that your employee must receive is the right to count any unpaid leave toward her overall years of work with you. This can be important in, for example, determining how much notice of termination is given or the amount of severance pay.

Employer-sponsored

If, however, you are inclined to spend some money on your employee's training (and claim  the tax benefits, etc.), you will want to send them officially. You should establish an agreement with the employee that can protect you as an employer and set limits on the expenses you are willing to cover.

Covering costs

There are two key assumptions in employer-sponsored training courses. First, the employee is reimbursed for all course fees and participation costs, including travel and living expenses.  Secondly, the employee receives paid leave during course time and when preparing for and taking exams. In addition, the employee may take time off from work. Polish law specifies the maximum amount of paid leave and time off - depending on the type of course, the leave could be as much as 34 working days. If you hadn't planned to be this generous, you should specify what is covered in a written agreement with your employee.

Refunds

Equally important is addressing the issue of refunding expenses if the employee leaves your company, whether during or after the course. Some courses take more than a year to complete. During the course, you may request that the employee return all or a portion of the expenses paid if the employee resigns, abandons his job or the company fires the employee immediately for cause. 

You can't force an employee to stay on in the job after completing a course (slavery was abolished a couple of centuries ago), but you can demand a similar refund of expenses as long it's specified in the agreement with your employee. The "stay-on" period may not be more than three years after course completion. 

In either case, there are a couple of hardship exceptions to the refund right, including long-term disability or relocation due to a spouse's job.

Polish law, however, does not address that all-too-frequent scenario of the courses I've attended - somnolent effects of a boring presentation. Fortunately for me, no legislation regulates whether I may still take paid leave even if I'm doing the cross-word puzzle in the back of the room.

Judith Gliniecki is Of Counsel to Wierzbowski Eversheds judith.gliniecki@wierzbowski.pl