Training costs

[DriverEight]

Bus companies used to take on, train up and employ drivers on the condition that they may have to pay back a proportion of the training costs if they left within 2 years after completion of the training. Has this ever been known to happen on the railways? I'm thinking particularly of someone like Grand Central training up new drivers, only to see them immediately jump ship for better pay and conditions at LNER.

 

[Class2ldn]

Yeah its quite common, normally 3 years but I dont think its commonly enforced

 

[387star]

Varies between TOCS
I think SWR keep you hand cuffed for three years before you can move. Some TOCS don't accept you if you've done less than three years. Other TOCS welcome you with open arms... I think it's too much hassle to enforce a pay back
Southern have a six month notice period which makes moving harder

 

[Efini92]

Freightliner makes you pay a percentage back if you leave within a certain time period.
Im not aware of any TOC’s having it written into the contracts, However as @387star says, most won’t take you on if you have less than two years service.
TPE went through a spell of poaching Northern drivers that had just passed out, I think they’ve reverted to 2 years now.

 

[Lewis H]

Varies between TOCS
I think SWR keep you hand cuffed for three years before you can move. Some TOCS don't accept you if you've done less than three years. Other TOCS welcome you with open arms... I think it's too much hassle to enforce a pay back
Southern have a six month notice period which makes moving harder

SWR don’t do that, we had a driver who qualified and within 12 weeks went over to overground ,,, before the new pay deal came in May I add!

 

[8J]

Freightliner makes you pay a percentage back if you leave within a certain time period.
Im not aware of any TOC’s having it written into the contracts, However as @387star says, most won’t take you on if you have less than two years service.
TPE went through a spell of poaching Northern drivers that had just passed out, I think they’ve reverted to 2 years now.

TPE have taken drivers on fairly recently with less than 2 years experience.

 

[Horizon22]

Some colleagues and I had this as a diminishing percentage over a 2-year period. It was all arbitrary though as nobody left during this period and even considered doing so.

 

[baz962]

I think I saw or read somewhere , although I could be wrong , that this is the reason that some tocs have several pay increments before hitting the top rate.

 

[Stigy]

TOCs and FOCs do have these clauses in contracts, but whether it’s worth the hassle to enforce it is another matter.

I’d imagine it’s less common for train drivers to want to jump ship straight after qualifying, given the length of time it’s taken them to actually learn the routes in their current TOC. Staff turnover for bus companies I guess is far more frequent.

 

[DriverEight]

It would be interesting to know how the costs would be calculated.

 

[172007]

Some London Midland depots where known as Cross Country training depots as so many staff transferred over so quick. DFT in their wisdom allowed XC TO have no new driver training school requirement so they didn't have one. Therefore they offered more money than LM to get staff to come over; no viscous circle wage inflation loop their is there.

 

[Bigfoot]

SWR don’t do that, we had a driver who qualified and within 12 weeks went over to overground ,,, before the new pay deal came in May I add!

SWR require 3 years productive before moving depots internally.

 

[Papa]

GB Railfreight you have to pay a decreasing amount for 5 years if they train you.

 

[DriverEight]

GB Railfreight you have to pay a decreasing amount for 5 years if they train you.

Is it enforced or just a threat?

 

[Papa]

It's in the contract, no idea if its enforced or the legalities of it.