Interesting. Do you think regular employees don't have employment contracts?
In the US, most employees below VP or director, will have very generic employment contracts. I've been at my employer for 20+ years and haven't signed a contract since I was hired, even through one merger and several PE acquisitions. I haven't signed anything about my normal salary either - they send me a notice every year when raises are granted and my reading it is treated as acceptance.
My bonus is loosely based on company financials, and subject to board and executive approval. As far as I know, the pay-out schedule isn't set in stone either. I have no doubt that if the company failed, I wouldn't see a penny of any unpaid bonus.
I'm not sure that's true for executives, who often have individual contracts with more specifics about bonuses, whether they be cash, stock, or something else.
Such is life in an at-will state.
Depending on the subset of banking you work in basically everyone is a VP because everyone needs that title in order to do their jobs without running afoul of the regulations. These people will have cookie cutter employment contracts if any.
I don't know how true this is, but i was told it by my brother about 20 years ago, who at the time was a (low ranking) VP at a bank.
I may be wrong but the offer letter is enough to insist your first paycheck and from there on in its obvious the company thinks you are an employee therefor subject to all employment law, most of which is about not changing the staus quo without due process. E.g. In the EU holiday pay cannot be lower than the previous 13 wk average doesnt matter what your contract says.
Employment law as far as i have seen in the UK (thanks to the EU) is all you are ever going to get anyway in any tight situation. Anything else in a contract is likely only gling to be an attempt to reduce that liability (which then in turn often invalidates the whole thing anyways).
Working without a contract would be so utterly alien to the mindset here on the continent. If you don’t have a work contract, which of the seventy-four different pension schemes do you fall under? How do you register your new job with your mandatory “public” health insurance? What social security ‘status’ is recorded for you in the centralised national register of inhabitants?
I mean, I recently needed a notarised copy of my rental contract just to register my change of address with the government, which is mandatory here every time you move. This is not a system that deals well with “yeah, I don’t have any papers for that”.
Sounds like someone in HR is going to get fired soon!
You almost certainly do in fact have an employment contract.