Every employee should enter into employment agreements. These agreements can be individual or collective agreement, as per the requirement. The law wants certain provisions that have to be entered into the Agreement. There are also minimum conditions, which should be honored, whether they are a part of the agreement such as safe working place for the employee, employee must carry out his duties to the best of his ability etc. Employment Agreement includes other provisions also and they are compensation of the employee, term of employment, bonus structure and bonus payout (cash vs. stock), grounds for termination, employee benefit s, holidays, leave and so on. The Employment Agreement continues till the time worker continues working.
But on certain occasions, the parties consider changing or modifying existing or original agreement. These changes in the agreement becomes necessary due to the certain prevailing situations, such as market change, which needs salary adjustment, responsibilities alteration, employer’s business model, employee related issue, which may include individual or collective employee etc. This modification can be long for modifying different provisions in the original agreement or amendment can be limited to certain aspects of the agreement and can be very short.
Again the Original Agreement may also have provision for amendments and such amendments procedures should be followed to make the amendments legally binding and valid.
The Amendment should mention the date of the amendment and refer the original agreement name and date.
The written amendment agreements are most viable option between the parties to avoid future disputes, which may arise, if the modifications in the agreements are entered verbally.
The following Employment Agreements and Amendments will show you the nature of such agreements and how modifications are carried out: