An optometrist has agreed to pay £6,150 to Scrivens Opticians after the optical chain took legal action over pre-reg training costs when she left after 15 months.
Marium Hayat agreed to settle the dispute moments before a trial at Walsall County Court was due to commence last week and will pay the money back over 12 monthly instalments.
Hayat completed her pre-reg training at a Scrivens practice near Wolverhampton in 2011 before being offered a job with the company in Burslem, Staffordshire. She said she took the job believing it was a two-week trial and left after this time because the commute and cost of travel was too much from Wolverhampton.
A spokesperson for Scrivens said: ‘Scrivens Opticians invests heavily in training and developing the next generation of optometrists and naturally we aim to retain this talent pool.
‘As part of our industry-standard terms and conditions of employment we provide comprehensive training at considerable cost, together with paying for College and exam fees and in return expect newly qualified employees to remain with Scrivens Opticians for a specified period after registration. If employees leave before this period, then they are expected to pay back a proportion of their training costs dependent on length of service.’
Hayat later took an optometrist job at Specsavers in Longton, Staffordshire, where she started in January 2012 and has worked since. Emails and letters about the repayment were exchanged for a number of months, when Hayat said she unsuccessfully offered a lesser amount.
She told Optician: ‘I think they thought I was leaving for more money but it wasn’t the case. It was down to location.
‘I would warn pre-regs to make sure they check their contract and keep a copy of it. I’d also urge companies to be clearer about what they are saying in the [pre-reg] contract.’
The Scrivens spokesperson said its terms and conditions of employment were clearly communicated to employees in writing. ‘In this particular instance, our contract and the obligations therein have been vindicated by the case being settled by Ms Hayat agreeing to repay her training fees and costs in full,’ she said.
Hayat added: ‘If I had all the money in the world I would’ve taken it all the way.’
