Employment Agreement is an important document which is executed by the Employee and Employer at the time of joining. This document portrays the relationship between the Employee and Employer. Employment Agreement must contains some of the important clauses like employment date, employees designation, place of employment, remuneration, ESOPs, leave policy, Term and Termination, Confidentiality, Dispute Resolution, jurisdiction etc.
An Offer letter issued before the joining of an employee is not a sufficient document to protect the interest of both of the parties and therefore, employment agreement is a must document. Labour law authorities also consider Employment agreement as an important document. This is basically done to recognize the place of employment so as to assess the compliances of that specific state. Further on the ideal note, an employment agreement must have to be executed on an appropriate amount of stamp paper.
- Offer Letter doesn’t depict a legal contract between the employer and the employee.
- Offer letter is just given to offer a job to a uitable or selected candidate.
- Includes only basic information (title, compensation, start date etc)
- Doesn’t promise anything
- Offer letter is a general document provided either in an email or the letterhead of the company.
- It establishes a legal contract between the employer and employee.
- This binds the relationship between both the parties after the offer letter is being accepted by the employee.
- Includes Terms and conditions in detail
- Clearly mentions the legal terms and conditions and the type of relation the employer shares with the employee.
- Employment Agreement should be on stamp paper.
Signature of an employee on the employment agreement is a must and the agreement is accepted only after the employee has duly signed it.
The amount of stamp paper differs from one state to another. Although the stamp paper of Rs. 100 is sufficient enough for an employment agreement.
A separate employment agreement is formed for the founders depending on their different clause and shareholding capacity. However, there are several other details that are different for founders and employees.
A few crucial points that are to be kept in mind while creating an employment agreement are - The probation period, termination with cause, the clause of not joining any other part-time or full-time employment, data protection, non-complete, jurisdiction, etc. All these points should not be skipped from the employment letter.
The employment agreement just contains the number of options for ESOP. Other details such as the amount, units, etc. are mentioned in a separate ESOP Grant letter.
Generally, separate policies are maintained by start-ups stating maternity and other such benefits.
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