Employment contract
is the agreement establishing the employment relationship: role, pay, hours, notice and the terms local law forces in. Many countries require written form and prescribed minimum contents — the EU transparency directive expanded them — and the applicable law is where the work happens, not where the employer sits.
What must be in writing — and when
The EU’s transparent-working-conditions rules require written core terms early (much of it in the first week): parties, place, role, pay components, hours, leave, notice, probation, and for posted staff, host-country details. National laws add items — Gulf states register contracts digitally (Qiwa in Saudi Arabia; MOHRE templates in the UAE), Switzerland demands written clauses for probation deviations and non-competes.
Foreign-template contracts are the recurring failure: a home-country agreement applied abroad leaves mandatory local terms missing and unenforceable clauses standing. Local-law contracts per employment country — the default inside any EOR arrangement — avoid the whole class of problems.
FAQ
Can we use English-language contracts everywhere?
Often yes with caveats: several countries require local-language versions to be available or prevailing (France for certain terms, Gulf registrations in Arabic, Poland for enforcement). Bilingual contracts with a stated prevailing language are the safe pattern where English alone is risky.
Which law governs an international employment contract?
Choice-of-law clauses cannot strip the mandatory protections of the place of habitual work: courts apply the local floor regardless. Practically, contract under the work country’s law — fighting that principle buys litigation, not flexibility.