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Contracts, Probation Periods & PIAA

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This page contains GitLab's Team Member contract templates. The DRI for all GitLab Team Member contracts are the People Operations Specialist Team. Any changes to any contracts should be requested to the People Operations Specialist team and will require approval from our Director of Legal, Employment.

Employment and Contractor Agreements

The following contracts are for reference only and are viewable by anyone in GitLab.

United States

Belgium

Finland

Netherlands

For team members legally able to work and live in the Netherlands, we should use the GitLab BV contract template. PEO contract templates should be provided by the PEO directly. We should not use GitLab BV or GitLab IT BV contracts for PEO models.

Germany

All German contracts are required to have wet signatures. Please note that these contracts will need to be mailed to both the signatory and the team member for signatures.

Australia

New Zealand (subsidary of GitLab PTY Ltd, Australia)

United Kingdom

France

Canada

Japan

Ireland

Singapore

South Korea

Other

Locations where we do not have an entity or Professional Employer Organisation or for anyone hired under Meltano, GitLab IT BV contractor agreements should _always_ be used. Kindly keep in mind that if you were hired under a GitLab IT BV or GitLab BV Contractor agreement, that we are continuously working towards a Scalable Employment Solution in these locations, and your contract will therefore change in future:

Process for Suggesting Changes to the Contract Templates

Contracts are audited and updated on a semi-annual basis. All suggested changes should be added to the current Global Employment Contract Audit issue. If immediate changes are needed to any one of the contract templates, follow the process below:

  1. Create an Contract Update Issue - The template can be found here.
  2. Open the relevant contract template, which automatically redirects to its original editable Google Doc.
  3. If you have editing rights in the doc, change the document view to "Suggesting" mode (top right corner). If you do not have editing rights, you are able to make a comment on the doc or alternatively ping the People Ops Specialist team for assistance with having the suggestions added to the contract for approval.
  4. Any edits that are made will then be made as a suggestion to the contract.
  5. Once you have made the required changes, please tag the Senior Manager, People Operations as well as our Director of Legal, Employment to view and approve the relevant changes.
  6. Once the changes have been approved, it is important to notify the Candidate Experience Specialist Team to update the contracts in Greenhouse.

No changes or edits should be made to the contracts without the required approval.

The People Operations Specialist Team reviews if all Greenhouse tokens are correct

  1. See here for current set of tokens
  2. Update tokens on the contract if applicable
  3. Review in Greenhouse if all tokens are available (admin access is needed for that):
    • Log in to Greenhouse > click on: Settings (Gear Icon) > Offer Templates > click on: Upload New > Template Name: Country Name (OTE or no OTE) > Make sure All Offices All Departments and All Employment Types are all selected > Upload contract template as .doc file only > Save Template
    • Click on Test > Make sure all tokens have blue checks meaning the tokens are valid
  4. If you are updating a contract that is already in use (not for a brand new entity), you need to be sure to delete the old version of the contract out of Greenhouse.
  5. Delete the uploaded contract again, if it was just a test and final legal approval is still required

Correcting an error in an issued employment contract

  1. If an error is noticed, please make the Recruiting Manager aware.
  2. The Recruiting Manager will assign the contract correction to a Candidate Experience Specialist, ideally to the same person, that created the already issued contract.
  3. If the change is payroll relevant The Candidate Experience Specialist makes total-rewards@ gitlab.com and uspayroll@ gitlab.com or nonuspayroll@ gitlab.com aware.
  4. The Candidate Experience Specialist creates a new corrected contract using above templates and adds the following sentence in: "This agreement is effective {Hire date} and supersedes the employment agreement dated {date of erroneous agreement}."
  5. The Candidate Experience Specialist creates a Cover Letter explaining the reason for the correction.
    • Make a copy of the template and save it to the working documents folder on Google Drive to edit
  6. Once the new contract and cover letter have been created, ping a Candidate Experience Specialist for auditing.
  7. Send the audited created documents and any additional details on the correction to Emily Plotkin for review.
  8. Once approved by Emily stage the cover letter and new contract in DocuSign and send it for signature first to the Company signatory and subsequently to the team member.
  9. Upload the signed documents to the team member's Contracts & Changes folder in BambooHR.
  10. If applicable, make any necessary updates to the team member's BambooHR profile and email Total Rewards total-rewards@ gitlab.com and Payroll uspayroll@ gitlab.com or nonuspayroll@ gitlab.com to notify them of the changes.

Letter of Adjustment

If a team member changes roles at GitLab and the approval goes through Greenhouse, the process for a Letter of Adjustment is laid out in the Letter of Adjustment section on the CES Contract Processes handbook page. If a team member changes roles at GitLab and the approval goes through BambooHR, the process for a Letter of Adjustment is laid out in the Letter of Adjustment section on the Promotions & Transfers handbook page. For other instances such as a Relocation, the People Operations Specialist will create a Relocation letter according to the parameters as listed in the Relocation within the Same Country section on the Relocation handbook page.

Probation Period

Upon joining GitLab, some team members (location-dependent, see the below table for detail about each location) will have a probationary period between 3 and 9 months. Common practice is for contracts in each country to have the maximum allowable probationary period. In case of relocation to a different country or change of contract, if a team member has continued service with GitLab (tenure with GitLab has been uninterrupted) and they have already passed the probationary period of their original location or contract, they do not need to go through the probation period of their new location or contract. As per the onboarding process a notification in BambooHR would have been created.

The People Experience Team is responsible for managing the probationary period process internally (communication with the team member, their manager, confirmation of probationary period completion, and updating BambooHR), while the People Operations Specialist Team is responsible for managing relationships with legal counsel externally on a global scale to ensure compliance and iteration. If an exception request is made to end a probation period early, this should be escalated by the team member's manager to a skip-level and the People Business Partner via email. We will then evaluate the risk, performance and overall reason for the request. Further escalation to Legal might be necessary as well as decision making on how to proceed. There should be no expectation of approval.

Important steps during the Probation Period

For Managers

  1. Managers are responsible for monitoring and specifically reviewing performance halfway through the probation period of their direct report.
  2. If underperformance is an issue, or there is any hesitation regarding the successful completion of a probation period, this should be discussed immediately with Team Member Relations.
  3. 14 days prior to the end of their direct reports' Probation Period, the manager will receive an email from the People Experience Team, reminding them that their direct reports' probation period is coming to an end.
  4. The Hiring Manager will respond confirming their approval of their direct reports' completion of their probation period as well as the scheduled date of their 121 to communicate the succesful completion, or that they are in discussions with Team Member Relations.

For People Experience Team

  1. The People Experience team will be cc'ed on an email that is sent automatically as per the current email automation
    • If the email is not automatically sent out, then the People Experience Associate will need to create an issue and assign it to the People Group Engineer to triage.
  2. From this email, they will log the team members name, manager's name, and probation period end date in the Probation Period tab of the People Exp/Ops Task Tracker
  3. Once the Manager has confirmed that they are satisfied with their direct reports' performance and the date of their 121 to communicate succesful completion, the People Experience Associate will send a confirmation email following the date of the 121 to the team member to notify them that their probation period has been completed. The PEA will cc people-exp@ gitlab.com and the manager.
  4. The email thread between the People Experience team and the manager should be uploaded to the Contracts & Changes folder of the Documents tab of the direct reports' BambooHR profile.
  5. If no response is received from the manager after 7 days, the People Experience Team will check in BambooHR if there has been an manager update or change and follow up with a second email and a private message in Slack.
  6. If there is still no response after 10 days, the People Experience team will create a private Slack channel including the manager and relevant People Business Partner to get the needed confirmation.
  7. If for some reason, a manager is not contacted prior to a team member's probation notice completion, the manager must still be contacted to notify them that a team member's probation period is over, using the relevant email template. This thread must be saved in the team member's BambooHR profile, in their Contracts & Changes folder.

Probation Periods of Team Members Employed Through a PEO or an Entity

  1. If the team member is contracted or employed through one of our PEOs or alternatively an entity, the People Experience Associate will also need to reach out to the appropriate point of contact for that PEO to inform them of the team member's probation period completion. That information is listed in the Entity & Co-Employer HR Contacts folder within the 1Password People Ops Vault.

  2. If a manager is requesting an extension of a team members probation period who is employed via a PEO, the People Experience Associate will need to send an email to the appropriate point of contact to request an extention of a probation period.
  3. Save this email to the BambooHR profile.
  4. Update the BambooHR Job Status table with the new probation period.

Current Locations With Probationary Periods:

Country Probation Period Notice during probation Notice after probation
Australia 6 months 1 week 1 month
Austria 1 months No notice Less than 2 years is 6 weeks notice. 3-5 years is 2 months.6-15 years is 3 months. 16-25 years is 4 months. 25 years and above 5 months.
Brazil 3 months No notice, but there are termination costs. Employers must pay team members half of the the time remaining until the end of the probation period. (Example: Start date 2020-04-01, termination 2020-06-20, 10 days remaining until meeting 90-day probation period. Payment due for 5 days.) 30 days for less than one year's tenure. This is increased by 3 days per additional year of service up to a maximum of 90 days. (Ex. A team member with 3 years + 2 months of service needs 36 days' notice.)
Brazil 3 months No notice, but there are termination costs. Employers must pay team members half of the the time remaining until the end of the probation period. (Example: Start date 2020-04-01, termination 2020-06-20, 10 days remaining until meeting 90-day probation period. Payment due for 5 days.) 30 days for less than one year's tenure. This is increased by 3 days per additional year of service up to a maximum of 90 days. (Ex. A team member with 3 years + 2 months of service needs 36 days' notice.)
Canada 3 months (For any team member with a contract issued after April 5th, 2021. For contracts issued prior to April 5th, 2021 a 3-month probation period is not applicable.) N/A 2 weeks
Denmark 3 months 1 month 1 months’ notice until resignation within the first 6 months after commencement of the employment (probation period included), 3 months’ notice until resignation before the end of 3 years’ employment, 4 months’ notice until resignation before the end of 6 years’ employment, 5 months’ notice until resignation before the end of 9 years’ employment, 6 months’ notice until resignation after the end of 9 years’ employment.
France 3 months No notice Except in case of gross misconduct (“faute grave”), wilful misconduct (“faute lourde”) or force majeure, the Party who wishes to terminate the contract must notify the other party by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, subject to prior notice as provided by the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Germany 6 months 2 weeks 4 weeks
Hungary 3 months No notice 30 Days
India 6 months 1 week 30 days
Ireland 6 months 1 week 1 month
Italy 6 months No notice Executives: 6 months (less than 4 years of service), 8 months (between 4-10 years of service). All other team members: 60 working days (<5 years of service), 90 working days (between 5-10 years of service), 120 working days (more than 10 years of service).
Japan 6 months One week 30 days
Kenya 6 months 7 days 1 month
Latvia 3 months 1 month 1 month
Mexico 3 months No notice No notice
Netherlands 1 months 1 day 1 month before contract end
New Zealand 6 months N/A N/A
Philippines 6 months 30 days 30 days
Singapore 3 months 1 week 1 month
South Africa 6 months 1 week 1 week if the employee has been employed for six months or less. 2 weeks if the employee has been employed for more than six months but less than one year. 4 weeks if an employee has been employed for one year or more.
Spain 3 months No notice 15 days
Switzerland 3 months 2 days (or no notice if there are grounds) 7 days if during months 4-6. 30 days after 6 months of employment. There can be no notice if there are grounds for an immediate offboarding. From the second to the ninth year of employment, two months, from the last day of the month. From the tenth year of employment onwards, three months, from the last day of the month.
United Kingdom 6 months (For any team member with a contract issued after April 22, 2020. For contracts issued prior to April 22, 2020 a 3-month probation period is applicable.) 1 week 1 month

Locations without Probation Periods:

Country Notice
Israel 30 days
South Korea 1 month
Turkey 2 weeks
USA - Federal 2 weeks
USA - Inc 2 weeks

PIAA (Proprietary Information and Assignment Agreement)

GitLab strives to help its team members maintain the ability to work on projects that are unrelated to GitLab’s business, including other open-source projects. Our PIAA does not grant GitLab any rights to any creations that you may make that are not related to GitLab's business or the work you do for GitLab. That is, you are free to develop those creations without requesting approval in advance from GitLab.

If your employment contract was created prior to November 2017, we have created an amendment to the PIAA agreement which can be viewed here. It amends the 2A section of the PIAA. Please email the People Experience team who will complete and stage the document for signatures. The Amendment will first be signed by our Senior Director, People Success and then the team member.

Approval for Outside Projects & Activities (AKA Exceptions to PIAA)

Before beginning work on outside projects, second jobs, additional work - paid or unpaid, that could potentially impair your ability to perform your obligations to GitLab or could be deemed a conflict of interest, you must obtain approval in writing from your Manager, and further approval from your leaders as needed. This is also required to those at the offer stage who have yet to start their employment with GitLab.

Steps as a current candidate (actively engaged in the hiring process)

  1. Once the candidate receives their employment agreement, they will list all outside projects and activities in Exhibit A of the PIAA section.
  2. When the Candidate Experience Specialist receives the signed contract, they will review to see if the information was added to Exhibit A of the PIAA or if the candidate entered No or None. If content was entered, CES will notify the People Experience team in the #people-exp_ces private slack channel with the link to the candidate's Greenhouse profile.
  3. The People Experience team will complete the approval process as described in the onboarding processes.

Steps as a current team member

  1. Team member sends their request via email to their direct manager for approval and adds the People Operations team peopleops@ gitlab.com in copy for visibility.

Information needed in the email:

  1. The manager will ask any additional questions if necessary. A manager may not approve a request for outside projects or activities for a variety of reasons, including team member performance.
  2. If the manager approves, they will then confirm this in the thread and add the applicable Director-level leader to the thread, for their review and approval. If the direct manager is also at a Director-level, they will add the next level leader (VP or C-level as appropriate) to the email thread for review and approval.
  3. If a decision is made to deny, the manager will relay this to the team member, and then will forward the email thread to the People Operations Specialist team at peopleops@ gitlab.com' to be saved in the team member's BambooHR profile in their Contracts and Changes` folder.
  4. If the Director/next-level leader feels additional review and approval is needed, they will then add the next level leader (VP or C-level as appropriate) to the email thread. If this is not deemed necessary, the Director/next-level leader will respond indicating their approval. Note: A minimum of two leaders must approve all outside projects up to the E-group leader. If the E-group leader is the next level manager, the E-group leader approval is sufficient. Direct manager and Director-level are the usual levels. If the direct manager is at a Director-level, an additional level must approve.
  5. If the next level leader (VP or C-level) feels additional review and guidance is needed, they will add the Team Member Relations Specialist or Director of Legal and any other relevant leader to the thread.
  6. If a decision is made to approve and all approvals are documented, the People Operations Specialist will save the entire thread as a pdf to the team member's BambooHR profile in their Contracts and Changes folder.
  7. The People Operations Specialist team will then respond confirming receipt and state that the entire thread has been saved in the team member's BambooHR profile.
  8. For team members employed in the Netherlands, The People Operations Specialist will state the given in the form of the Authorization Letter. This letter must first be sent to the relevant E-group leader for signature, then to the team member. Once signed, this will be saved in the team member's BambooHR profile in the Contracts and Changes folder.

For any approved outside activity in which the GitLab team member will use their GitLab account, this activity must be stored in a separate, personal project. All other work completed as part of their GitLab employment or contract should be stored in a GitLab namespace with a GitLab copyright.

Annual Code of Business Conduct & Ethics Administration Process

Employees are required to review and acknowledge GitLab's Code of Business Conduct & Ethics (aka "CoBCE") upon starting employment at GitLab, and annually thereafter. The People Ops Specialist team oversees the annual CoBCE signature process, with the People Experience team administering and tracking signature completion of new hires as well as all team members during the annual signature process. The annual signature process occurs between February and April. Process steps include:

  1. Legal reviews the most current version of the CoBCE. If any changes are suggested, they are incorporated and a most up-to-date version is created and updated in our handbook.
  2. The most current and updated CoBCE is uploaded to BambooHR and is formatted as a Signature Document, with fields for team member name, signature, and date.
  3. The People Operations Specialist team crafts communications for the announcement of the process and specific email that will attach the signature request. Legal and the Internal Communications team will review and approve these communications.
  4. The People Operations Specialist team announces to all team members (in Slack, email, and relevant call if necessary) that the annual CoBCE signature process is set to launch, and that the process will have a 30-day due date for 100% signature adherence.
  5. The People Operations Specialist team creates the distribution list based on those who have not signed a CoBCE within the last three months prior to sending the new CoBCE.
  6. The People Experience team sends out the CoBCE to all relevant team members from BambooHR by email.
  7. The People Operations Specialist team will report weekly on progress, send reminders, and follow the escalation process.

Code of Business Conduct & Ethics Escalation Process

  1. Starting at two weeks post-launch, a reminder email is sent to individual team members who have not yet signed.
  2. At three weeks post-launch, a second reminder email is sent to individual team members who have not yet signed, cc'ing their managers.
  3. At four weeks post-launch, a third reminder email is sent to individual team members who have not yet signed, cc'ing their managers and next-level leaders.
  4. Past the 30-day due date, People Compliance will follow up with all team members who have not signed the CoBCE to indicate that their signature is required.
  5. People Compliance will alert Legal, who will provide guidance on next steps.
  6. All escalation communication for any team member who has still not signed the CoBCE must be saved in the team member's Verification folder in BambooHR.
  7. Team members must be aware that failure to sign the Code of Business Conduct & Ethics may result in consequences up to and including offboarding, due to values misalignment.

Contract Renewals

The below process can be used for the following:

When creating a new contract, if it is to be for 12 months, that timeframe is always to be written as (for example):

When renewing a contract, if it is to be for 12 months, the timeframes are at be seen as (for example):

  1. Using the Relocation & Contract Renewal's tracker view the upcoming team member contract expiry date. On the sheet you will see the People Operations Specialist owner, if you are the owner be sure to note the end date and start the below process 2 months before the end date.
  2. Take note of the team members details and reach out to the team members manager via email using the following template, be sure to CC the Team Member Relations team (teammemberrelations@gitlab.com).
  3. Once you have received confirmation on next steps from the team members line manager, be sure to save the thread under the team members profile on BambooHR.
  4. Using the correct contract template from the templates folder complete with required team member details. These details can be found on the team members BambooHR profile.
  5. Do not keep the Stock Options line in the Key Terms section, unless additional shares are being given.
  6. Be sure to write both the Start date and Birth date of the team member in the Month DD, YYYY format to prevent confusion.
  7. Remove any wording regarding Probation Period if applicable.
  8. When you have a completed contract be sure to allow a team member to peer review it for you. This can be done by posting the document link in the People Ops private slack channel. Indicate that you are reviewing it by using the 'Eyes' emoji.
  9. Once reviewed, stage the contract for signing in Docusign.
  10. Ensure that the GitLab signatory is the first to sign, followed by the team member. This can be done by selecting the assign signing order option.
  11. When signed by both parties, save the contract to the team member's BambooHR profile in the Contracts & Changes folder.
  12. Update BambooHR to reflect the correct Job Information. Ensure the new contract information is added along with an end date if applicable.
  13. Notify the Total Rewards team so that they may audit any BambooHR changes.
  14. DE (Germany) contracts only: If no payroll information is on file, send a payroll questionnaire from Docusign. Once completed, upload to BambooHR and email nonuspayroll@ gitlab.com to notify.

Netherlands Renewal Process

  1. Two months before the contract ends, HR Savvy will send an email to the People Operations Specialist email address.
  2. An automatic email is also sent to the team member's manager two months before the team member's contract ends. The email is cc'd to peopleops@domain and the Team Member Relations team (teammemberrelations@gitlab.com).
  3. GitLab offers one temporary 12-month contract to start. After the year-long temporary contract, if the team member is in good standing, they are given an Indefinite Agreement beginning at the team member's second year with the company. If a team member has been with GitLab for over one year after their first temporary contract finished due to a relocation, they are given an Indefinite Contract.
  4. The Manager has then 3 weeks to evaluate the performance of the team member and discuss the planned course of action with the Team Member Relations team.
  5. At least 1 month before the end of the contract, the manager informs the People Operations team on whether to extend the contract and for what term.
  6. At least 1 month before the end of the contract, the manager informs the team member of the extension or not. The Team Member Relations Partner can help with providing guidance on the messaging.
  7. The People Operations Specialist Team will check the Netherlands Renewal tracker in Google Drive to see if any previous action has been taken or check for notes for the specific team member.
  8. If a salary increase is required due to updated visa salary requirements the People Operations Specialist requests approvals from the team member's manager, total rewards and finally the team member's Division's E-Group leader.
  9. The People Operations Specialist team documents the approval emails in the Contracts & Changes folder in BambooHR.
  10. If the contract extension is approved, the People Operations Specialist team creates the contract and stages it via Docusign for the team member and Senior Director, People Success (on behalf of CPO if there is no current CPO) to sign.
    • Do not keep the Stock Options line in the Key Terms section, unless additional shares are being given.
    • Be sure to write both the Start date and Birth date of the team member in the Month DD, YYYY format to prevent confusion.
    • Check whether the team member is currently paid the holiday allowance monthly. If yes, confirm with the team member whether we can update to yearly. If the team member agrees to update, ensure to update pay frequency. If no, confirm okay with Legal - Employment and ensure to add correct wording to this effect in new contract.
    • Remove any wording regarding Probation Period if applicable.
    • Note: A second probation period should only be implemented if the team member's new contract reflects the start of an entirely new role. If the contract is simply a continuation of employment in the current role, a second probation period should not be applied.
    • Remove any wording regarding certificate of good conduct, as this was already requested as part of their first Netherlands contract.
  11. The People Operations Specialist team documents the signed contract in the Contracts & Changes folder in BambooHR.
  12. The People Operations Specialist Team will then password-protect the signed contract and email it to hr@savvy-group.eu.
    • To password protect on MAC: Download the document > open finder > right click > open with > preview
    • Click: file (top of your screen) > export as pdf > click: show details > tick: encrypt
    • Password: {{add new password}} > save
  13. The People Operations Specialist updates BambooHR to reflect the correct Job Information. Ensure the new contract information is added along with an end date if applicable.
  14. Notify the Total Rewards team so that they may audit any BambooHR changes.

Note: A team member cannot have more than three temporary contracts with the same employer in a row. If a fourth contract is offered by GitLab then it must be a permanent one.

The Netherlands Contract Best Practices

  1. Best practice for team members in the Netherlands is to issue one 1-year Temporary Contract prior to moving to an indefinite contract. After the completion of the 1-year Temporary Contracts, we move to the indefinite contract.

  2. GitLab is to take into consideration the entire tenure of the team member at time of relocation to determine the type of contract to create. Due to the usual 1-year tenure at GitLab prior to a team member requesting to relocate and immigrate to the Netherlands, if the team member has been at GitLab more than one year, the best practice procedure would be to give the team member an indefinite contract, with approval from their manager.

CXC Contract Renewal

CXC contracts are issued on a yearly basis, with contracts expiring after one year. CXC remains the responsible PEO for ensuring the contract renewal is completed for each team member.

Standard practice is to automatically renew CXC contracts. The offboarding process will apply should a team member be terminated voluntarily or involuntarily.

German Contracts

We will receive a scanned, final copy of the fully (in-person) signed contract for GitLab GmbH team members from our relevant provider in Germany. The People Operations Specialist will download and save a copy of the contract to BambooHR to the relevant team members profile under the Contracts folder for our records.

GitLab Inc Best Practices

GitLab, Inc with OTE

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