Employers must pay for mandatory training

As an employer, you must reimburse your employees for mandatory training. For example,  a first aid refresher course or a MOT inspector training. Your employees must also be able to take this training during working hours. Read more about the rules in this article.

Mandatory  training

Since 1 August 2022, employers must pay for mandatory and necessary training. This is stated in the European directive on transparent and predictable working conditions. Think of safety and working conditions training, or keeping up to date with necessary expertise.. But what training is mandatory?

• Training included in the collective labour agreement (CAO). For example, the CAO for professional freight transport states that a Code 95 certificate is compulsory for drivers.
• Training required by law. Think of a BHV (emergency response) course. According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, an organisation must have in-house emergency and first-aid officers. 
• Training that is essential for performing the job. Such as training in a specific marketing system your company uses.

The law in practice

So, as an employer, you have obligations around training. These are:

• The employer reimburses all costs that the employee has to incur to follow the training. So in addition to training costs, also the costs for travel, books, and other study materials, such as examination fees. 
• Training time counts as working time. 
• The training must take place during regular working hours if possible. 
• The employer may decide whether it offers mandatory training itself or outsources it to third parties. 

Any employee can claim under these rules. Under certain circumstances, the employer may also have this obligation for hired self-employed professionals (zzp’er) or employees working under the pretence that they are self-employed professionals, so-called false zzp’ers. That depends on whether the (false) zzp’er falls under the European definition of an employee (in Dutch).

Exception: regulated professions

Training courses that fall under the Professional Qualification Directive (pdf, Directive 2005/36/EC) are not covered by the new rules. This applies to regulated professions, such as nurse, security guard, doctor and lawyer. The employer is not obliged to reimburse training courses that are included in this list. As an employer you may, of course, offer to pay for such training.