My husband works full time for a company that has decided that a certain group of employees attend some mandatory training sessions either before or after their normal working hours.....in other words, they are at work more than the usual 8 hours per day. The company has said however that this is 'on the employee's own time', in other words they will not be paid for this time. The training is in order to help them all pass some kind of test they must all take before December 31, 2007. If they don't take or pass the test, they will be fired. Doesn't the company have to pay them for this 'mandatory' training?

Assuming that the employees are nonexempt (generally speaking, hourly-paid), mandatory training/meetings, etc. ARE compensable time and must be considered as "work hours" for purposes of calculating whether overtime is due. The link below shows four conditions, ALL of which must be met if the time is to be noncompensable. If ANY ONE of the conditions is NOT met, then it's work time.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.27.htm