An employment agreement is a contract which creates the relationship of employer and employee who provides labour in return for salary (a fixed amount per pay period usually for intellectual work) or wage (an amount paid by the hour typically for physical work).
A clearly drafted employment agreement can set out the obligations and expectations of the employer (a person or organisation that employs people) and the employee (someone who gets paid to work for a person or company) in a way to minimize future employment disputes.
The terms of employment include the employee’s job responsibilities, work days, hours, dress code, annual leave (a period of paid time off granted to employees by their employer), sick leave (paid time off from work that employees can use to stay home to address their health needs), parental leave (job-protected leave from employment to care for a child following its birth or adoption) and pension (a sum of money to support the person’s retirement from work in the form of periodic payments). They also include supplementary benefits such as cafeteria (different forms of fringe benefits above the employee’s gross salary) and medical insurance (an amount that covers the whole or a part of a person’s medical expenses).
KEY VOCABULARY
adoption
annual leave
cafeteria
dress code
employer
employee
employment agreement
fringe benefit
job-protected leave
medical insurance
paid time off
parental leave
pension
periodic payment
retirement
salary
sick leave
supplementary benefits
wage
work days
work hours
