How to check an employment contract before signing
Job title, pay, working time, probation, and termination — a checklist for the employee and the employer
An employment contract is worth checking before the first working day: some terms are hard to change later, and vague wording on pay, place of work, and probation often becomes the subject of a dispute. An overview of the type is “Employment contract”. Below is a practical reading of the text, not a check “in an Interior Ministry database” or similar authenticity services.
Upload the employment contract and get a clause-by-clause breakdown of the risks:
1. Parties, job title, and place of work
- The employer is identified correctly (name, INN)
- The job title and job function match the offer
- The place of work / remote format is described unambiguously
- The start date and the term of the contract (a fixed term only with a ground)
2. Pay and working time
- Salary / tariff rate, the makeup of pay, and pay dates
- Bonuses: guaranteed, or “at discretion”
- Working-time regime, overtime, and irregular working hours
- Leave: length and the procedure for granting it
Dangerous wording:
- “Pay is set by order,” with no amount in the contract
- A bonus as the only substantial part of income, with no rules for calculating it
- An employer right to change the schedule “at any time” with no compensation
3. Probation, financial liability, and an NDA
- The probation period and the criteria for an “unsatisfactory result”
- Full financial liability only where the law allows it and it is documented separately
- Confidentiality: term, scope of information, and sanctions
4. Termination and supplementary agreements
- Grounds for dismissal are not tightened beyond the Labor Code of the Russian Federation with wording such as “at the employer’s discretion”
- The notice procedure and the handover of work are clear
- There is a reference to the job description / internal regulations — and you have been shown them
If a permanent role is offered under a GPH contract instead of employment, compare the formats in “A civil-law (GPH) contract and an employment contract”.
Bottom line
How to check an employment contract: match the job title and pay to the offer, fix the working time and probation, and remove vague employer rights to change the terms “unilaterally.”