Yes, I am totally aware that this frustration is my own to manage and also that I have nothing real to gain from him following the rules. This is why I did nothing till now

@Lucas - if it helps, take this up as a mantra: "My happiness doesn't depend on XYZ" - and fill in XYZ as needed. Realizing that this is an external distraction that doesn't actually impact your life is the first step - and then finding a way to center yourself is the second. When I had a terrible job with a terrible boss who would tell me terrible things, my mantra was, "This guy doesn't get to decide whether I'm happy. I'm happy because I did a good job with A and B."

Sometimes being mature just isn't worth it. I'd deal with the frustration another way: Realize that this is eventually going to hit the fan and all the people involved will suffer. You get to sit back and enjoy the show. Great Schadenfreude. I bet just by thinking about it now, the muscles in your neck are relaxing...?

It's legitimate to be upset by fairness problems. We're not robots.

If shit hits the fan, you do not want to be in front of the same fan. Skimming hundreds of hours from a company is not something you want to be doing. The monetary value is high enough to be considered grand theft. What your co-worker is doing is not something to be envious of.

@Nelson if he was not informed about the rules, then it clearly isn't any of that. It is more like someone in the company trying to make it look like someone else tried to do grand theft (by means of withholding this information). (And yes I know he was hired by the british all along).

@Lucas just consider this (unlikely) hypothetical scenario: He has a special contract, which explicitly allows him to stamp these hours as working hours, but also includes an NDA, so he can't tell any coworkers about this. Would this change your perception? You should not act, if all you want to accomplish is to somehow make his life worse out of envy.

"...and isn't really any of your business." Sure it is. The company has the policy because they expect a certain amount of work. It's the company's business that these hours are worked, and because you work for the company, it's your business to inform them that they're not getting what they paid for. Now, fixing it is well beyond the scope of the asker, but informing superiors that one of their employees is knowingly not delivering the required hours is well within their purview as an employee.

Fine answer, but as to the last paragraph, that is the only excuse that works - and it works incredibly well. You cannot dock his salary because he didn't follow a rule he wasn't informed of. That will go through the courts like a fighter jet and end in his favor - and HR knows it.

"You knew they were defrauding the company of thousands of euros and didn't say anything?" "That's not my job." I'm sure that conversation will go over swimmingly.

@Reid: No it is not "legitimate", it is petty. As Kevin points out, do not let what someone else does or doesn't do affect your happiness, decisions, actions, or reactions. Trying to apply "fairness" is what has gotten Lucas frustrated, and that is entirely self-inflicted.

@mathreadler It may not be "grand theft" or whatever, in a legal sense, but if he was informed by multiple colleagues that that policy applies in his workplace... and he wasn't officially told that... do you not think he should at least query it with managers/HR to get clarification?

@StianYttervik HR doesn't know anything about his situation at the moment. It isn't a "HR knows it and they know they can't do anything about it".

@seventyeightist maybe there was a reason he was not told that. For example if he had not signed the same contract in the first place. Maybe it simply did not apply to him, fair or not.

@B.Goddard Realize that this is eventually going to hit the fan and all the people involved will suffer. Indeed. The employee's attitude of "I didn't get the email so I don't know" is quite immature - once any current employee tells them the rules, they know the rules, and are now deliberately breaking those rules. It would actually be in the employee's best interests for someone to talk them out of this behaviour as quick as possible.

@mathreadler even if he wasn't told that, I still think he should (and I would, in his position) check whether it was an oversight. It seems clear from the Q that he's one of a team of software engineers (or similar) and the only difference between them is that he started after these language courses were introduced, and the rest of the team were already in the company when the courses started. And it wouldn't have been in the "contract" signed by the others either, as the language courses started after they started the job. (but it's unclear whether they signed something separately after).

@seventyeightist do we really know this or are we guessing? Maybe he is a special snowflake and putting him in a bad situation would harm the company and make someone higher up with much more information than we have very displeased? I would not act if I were OP.. Seems way too risky. There is a chance he will realize who our real employers are also, and then we would be doubly screwed.

@mathreadler We only know what's stated in the OP and what can be reasonably assumed (e.g. knowledge of how things work in typical organisations; common 'European' employment laws, etc) so we're guessing to some extent, but hopefully on an "informed guess" basis rather than just a shot in the dark! Why do you think it is too risky to act (in OPs position), what are the risks as you see them?

The only problem is that employees are often competing for promotions at many companies. Not having to work as many hours might put their competitor in a better position because they are happier and less stressed out. Which might allow them to do better work and work with others better.