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In hindsight, you should have negotiated the effect this had on your holiday days before accepting the course.

Sure, if you cancel that day's holiday, I'll attend.

Since (I assume) the course is related to your work, you should now head to HR and tell them what happened and ask for them to strike off that day's holiday time so that you can use it for your own PTO.

If that doesn't work out for you, you might have to suck this one up and put it down to experience. Be really careful about your manager redirecting your PTO in future.

Is this a common thing?

No, it's not.

As long as the training is related to your profession and helps you make a better employee (and even also a human being), it's a part of the "job".

You need to reach out to your HR. Maybe your boss is misreading or misinterpreting (deliberately or unintentionally) the company policies.

edit:

I'm currently in my last week of work for this company, [....] We do not have a HR department since the company I work for is small (5-6 people).

Well, then he played a little trick. There's really nothing much you can do. Just move on and take this as an experience.

No, this is not common among reputable management. Your boss knows darn well that they stiffed you and if they are this petty then trying to get that day back from them will uncover further levels of pettiness.

Based on your previous question combined with this one I would suggest to just learn from this experience and move on.

Besides, you have taken more sick days than allowed, right? Were you paid for all of those days? If so, then I would call it "even".

Far too many people are willing to die on a molehill and if one is not readily available then they build their own.

^ Don't be one of these people.

Today, I saw that the day of the class was still listed as a day off, and when I asked my boss about it, he said that I was not at work so it counts as a day off.

Is this a common thing?

No, absolutely not.

I'm currently in my last week of work for this company.

Well, that changes things. Did you really think your company would send to a class on company time in the last week you are working for them? What benefit to the company does you going to that class have?

Your boss could have made it more clear to you that going to class would be in your own time -- but you should also have been more proactive and have asked for details (who pays for it, on whose time, etc) when he offered.

Note: This answer applies to required education/courses to fulfill your agreement

What your employer did is unlawful according to this. In the Netherlands there is a workplace law called "Scholingsplicht" that, summed up, says:

An employer is required to make all necessary provisions for the employee to be able to do his/her job (fulfill the contract/agreement). This includes required additional education, courses, etc.

In Dutch terminology, this also includes travel expenses (and any expenses you incur for your work), but these details can be found in your agreement (or CAO if applicable).

Do note that the law does not say anything about paying your hourly wage, if you need assurance then the logical step is to setup and both sign a studiekostenovereenkomst where both parties agree on the terms of the additional courses, schooling, costs/salary etc.

If you voluntarily can take the course, it is allowed to not count as "work".

As you work in a sector where getting a new decent job is quite easy, you still have "negotiation power". I would have a serious face-to-face conversation with my boss, explaining him the "misunderstanding" and the reasons why you are not happy about these events.

Ask politely for the fair thing to be done. If he refuses, start looking for a new job, after all, if they can cheat you on one silly "day off", there may be plenty of other things where they will take advantage of you (if they aren't already)

I will counter that it IS common in my area: Specifically, I am a contractor in the US, and it is common for employers to offer to pay the cost of training with the qualification that the time itself is unpaid. Larger companies may even have an education allowance. If you wanted to take a class during the week, you could use paid time off to fill the gap in your hours, so that your paycheck would not be reduced. (Often such classes are offered on the weekends anyway or we flex our hours to still fit in the same number of billable hours around our class.) These courses usually offer some certificate or similar that you can use as a justification for a pay increase.

The main difference is that a reputable company is upfront about what can and cannot be charged! For example, "Come to corporate HQ for a meeting (charge 1 hour to overhead)." or "You are invited to our holiday party (no chargable time)." We also fill in time cards so our time is billed correctly, so it would be clear right away how much time you're charging and how much time you're taking as vacation.

Considering that you have already taken the course, I would recommend documenting that this should be counted as work and that this has been refused. Once you have left the company you can then inform the company that you will be pursuing them for the debt of the unpaid day's work.

I am assuming that the Netherlands has some sort of small claims court which you could pursue the company through or an employment tribunal. Waiting until after you have left will avoid any blow back. Hopefully they will not contest it and compensate you once you suggest legal avenues.

In your case they paid for a class for a resigned employee, one that you liked and found greatly informative. I'd be careful about accusing them of taking advantage of you.

Your title says that they asked you to take the class, your description say that they asked you if you wanted to take the class. That's a very significant difference.

I've definitely had deals with employers where we split the voluntary investment on the growth of my personal skills and I don't see anything strange with that. They can pay for the conference fee and the days off, while I pay for the travel and accommodation for example.

You should have asked for clarification if you expected to get paid for the time as well. Especially since you've already resigned.

Is this a common thing?
I work/live in the Netherlands and my field of work is IT.

Yes, in the Netherlands it is common practice to do courses, trainings and/or educations in your own time (days off) on the costs of your boss. If the course is not obligatory, but voluntary applied for or agreed upon. However, this practice usually tends to happen within smaller companies and companies that are not financially stable.

_{Take my talk on law with a grain of salt, I am not a lawyer, but I am the owner of a IT company in the Netherlands}

Unless described differently in a CAO (which more often, if not always, is not the case in Dutch IT companies) or in your Contract.

The Dutch law differentiates between obligatory courses, and voluntarily courses.
If the course was mandatory, they would have to respect the fact that your time off, is your time off. And would have to either pay your for the hours spend, or compensate you by the means of hours off.

However, if you voluntarily agreed to take the course in your spare time. Which is what I am assuming by the phrasing of your very first paragraph. Then the company is not obliged to pay for the time, or give you time off in return. This because you could have spend the time in other ways.