A contract is an agreement that two or more parties establish to determine the rights and obligations on a certain matter. The idea of work, for its part, can allude to the activity that is carried out in exchange for remuneration.

An employment contract, therefore, is a document that regulates the employment relationship between employers and workers. Employment contracts can be individual or collective.

An employment contract regulates an employment relationship.

Individual employment contract

In the case of an individual employment contract, it details that a natural person (the worker) assumes the commitment to carry out certain tasks for a legal or natural person (the employer), under dependence and subordination of the latter. The employer, in turn, assumes the obligation to pay a certain remuneration for these tasks.

Suppose a young man is hired as an administrative employee by a telephone company. Before beginning to carry out his tasks, the boy signs an employment contract with a company representative, where it is stated that the employee must carry out administrative work from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and that the employer will pay him a gross salary of $1,000 per month.

The employment relationship ends when the employment contract is without effect. This can happen when the employer decides, unilaterally, to terminate said contract, either invoking cause or not. The worker, in this case, is fired. Another possibility is the termination of the employment contract, which implies the disappearance of the agreed obligations and rights.

The employment contract can be individual or collective.

Collective agreement

A collective bargaining agreement, meanwhile, is an agreement established by one or more employers with one or more unions to set certain conditions that must be respected in labor relations.

These contracts can cover issues such as wages, hours of work and vacations.

Types of employment contract

Indefinite contract

This is the one that is not limited to a certain period of time, but rather provides for a continuous provision of services by the employee to the employer until one of the two parties decides to end the collaboration. Since it offers bonuses that aim to encourage access to work for various groups, companies also benefit from opting for this type of contract.

It should be noted that in order to enjoy these benefits, companies must not have any kind of debt from the tax administration or social security.

Temporal agreement

At first glance, this type of contract is the opposite of the previous one, since it does establish a time limit for collaboration, with a maximum duration of three years, which can be extended for one more.

In this case there is the following subdivision:

* specific work or service: the employee undertakes to carry out a well-defined job autonomously;

* eventual: it is made to resolve production issues, such as an excess of demand that the permanent staff cannot satisfy;

* internship: used to replace employees for different reasons, such as vacations.

Training and apprenticeship contract

As its name indicates, it has the objective of training the worker in a paid work regime for a certain time. One of the main requirements for the employee is to be between 16 and 25 years old, although if the unemployment rate is below 15%, the age range can be extended to 30 years.

Training contract

It allows workers who have completed their studies within the four years prior to the date of signing the contract to carry out experience in a company for a maximum period of two years, either full-time or part-time, receiving a salary that is usually around 60% of what permanent employees earn.