Can't find what you're looking for? Try the main People Operations page.
For any queries related to UK benefits, please email total-rewards@gitlab.com for further assistance.
For UK-based team members, GitLab provides 100% paid membership of medical insurance with AXA PPP. This private medical insurance level is named Business Health Select with core cover. Family members can be added to the insurance and GitLab will pay 66% of the cost to include them. Please note: team members enrolled will still be responsible for the BIK ("Benefits in-Kind") taxes on their healthcare coverage. If you have questions on your BIK taxes, please email 'nonuspayroll@gitlab.com' and 'total-rewards@gitlab.com'. Further information can also be found in the AXA PPP Brochure.
Please let the Total Rewards team know if you would like to join the scheme via email to total-rewards@gitlab.com. Include the full names and date of birth of all dependants you would like added to the scheme. The Total Rewards team will forward your request to our UK Broker, Willis Tower Watson (WTW), by email. Please note that it can take 7 - 10 working days to receive a reply and confirmation from AXA PPP.
FYI Total Rewards team: The UK HR partner's contact information can be found in the Entity and Co-Employer HR Contacts note in the PeopleOps vault in 1Password.
The current coverage includes:
Please note: the AXA plan underwriting is based on a MHD (Medical History Disregarded) basis, meaning that pre-existing medical conditions that existed prior to the date on which the individual joined the AXA scheme will be covered for treatment (subject to the rules and benefits of the AXA policy, please review your AXA membership package sent by AXA for further reference).
*Current team members enrolled and new joiners to the AXA plan will have cover for treatment of pre-existing medical issues they may have had before joining, without being a member for two years or being required to have 12 consecutive months of "trouble-free" from when the condition began (pre-existing moratorium terms no longer apply).
For additional details regarding coverage please review the AXA Coverage Summary
Please also note that this is a taxable benefit. Team members enrolled will still be responsible for the BIK ("Benefits in-Kind") taxes on their healthcare coverage.
During Willis Tower Watson's initial onboarding email to enroll in the scheme, they will provide a quote for a team member to add coverage and an estimate for adding dependents. The cost of dependendent cover can be estimated as follows:
| Tier | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Team Member + Spouse | 2x Team Member Premium |
| Team Member + Child(ren) | 1.6x Team Member Premium |
| Family | 2.5x Team Member Premium |
As GitLab team members work (DSE) display screens equipment on a regular basis, GitLab will reimburse team members for a full eye examination and vision test up to 30 GBP.
If the test shows that the team member needs corrective lenses exclusively for DSE work, GitLab will reimburse towards the cost of a basic pair of frames and lenses (i.e. not designer lenses) up to 120 GBP.
The team member needs to provide documentation (a prescription) from the optician that confirms if the lenses are specifically required for reading a display screen only (this is normally a very small proportion of users) and not required for general day to day use.
If you are enrolled in the AXA Medical plan, please submit any eligible claims through the plan first, any out of pocket cost not covered by the plan can be reimbursed up to the max amount in accordance to the Vision policy.
Please submit your receipts via expensify and prescription to Total Rewards.
Life Insurance provides peace of mind for you and your loved ones with a tax-free lump sum payout in the event of your untimely death, helping to relieve financial concern during a time of grief. GitLab offers Life Insurance via Unum to all team members between age 16 and State Pension Age.
Team Members are automatically enrolled in to the pension benefit of 4x basic annual salary up to the Free Cover Limit. Team Members with a base salary of £375,000 or higher will need to apply for a medical assessment to receive cover over the Free Cover Limit. Please reach out to Total Rewards if you are eligible and wish to apply for the additional cover.
To designate a beneficiary for this benefit, please complete the Expression of Wish Form and send the completed form to the Total Rewards Team.
See additional details on the Life Insurance Policy.
As part of the life insurance benefit, Unum also offers an Employee Assistance Program for those based in the United Kingdom. For information on how to use the EAP, please see the following document in the google drive.
As part of the life insurance benefit, Unum also offers Help@hand providing you and your family with fast, direct access to medical experts through one easy-to-use app, including:
New Team Members should expect an enrollment email from Help@Hand the first week of the month following their hire date.
Income Protection provides financial support if you’re unable to work due to illness or injury for a specified length of time, and aims to help you, your family and others who depend on the money you earn. GitLab's policy with Unum will help us to ensure you receive a percentage of your income if you can’t work because of illness or injury. It also includes direct access to expert Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants who can support you while you’re off and ease your return to work. See more details on the Income Protection Policy.
All team members (between age 16 and State Pension Age) are automatically enrolled in Income Protection of 66% of base salary up to the Free Cover Limit payable after you’ve been absent for 13 weeks effective as of the date of hire. Employees with a base salary of £226,000 or higher will need to apply for a medical assessment to receive cover over the Free Cover Limit. Please reach out to Total Rewards if you are eligible and wish to apply for the additional cover.
Please reach out to Total Rewards for information on how to use your Income Protection benefit with Unum. Payments are made exactly like your salary, and tax and National Insurance contributions are deducted in the usual way. If you are absent due to illness or injury on the day your cover or an increase in cover is due to begin, you may not be eligible until you return to active work in your usual role.
GitLab provides and contributes into an Auto-Enrollment personal pension scheme with Scottish Widows
Willis Towers Watson act as employee benefit advisers to the GitLab GPPP and although cannot provide you with financial advice are available to explain the details of the GitLab GPPP and answer any questions you may have.
Willis Towers Watson
Please refer to the Company Pension Plan FAQ for additional information on the plan. Please note that all eligible team members will be auto-enrolled in the scheme. Please also watch the 2022 UK Pension Webinar with Geoff Wilson for an overview of UK Pension System.
Team Members who have signed a UK Employment contract after 13 December 2022 will be automatically enrolled in to Company Pension Scheme via Salary Exchange. Please note that if you signed your contract prior to 13 December 2022 will have to request to opt in to the Salary Sacrifice Scheme. You can do so by emailing total-rewards@gitlab.com. As part of this Salary Exchange offering GitLab will be passing on their employer NI saving to you as an employee in the form of an increased pension contribution. You can find more information in the following document detailing the benefits and potential disadvantages of changing to a Salary Exchange arrangement.
Salary Sacrifice FAQ
Auto-enrollment is a scheme brought in by the Government as they want everyone to save more for their retirement. Employees will receive a letter from GitLab informing them when they have been auto enrolled in the scheme. As this is now law, employees will be auto enrolled into the GitLab UK Group Personal Pension Scheme from January 1, 2018 or as soon as they join the company if:
If an employee does not meet these criteria then they will be considered an Entitled Worker (earn less than £5,824 p.a) or a Non-Eligible Jobholder (earn between £5,824 and £10,000 p.a).
The following process is followed by GitLab People Operations to join the Scheme during onboarding:
When an employee joins the scheme they will be sent a welcome pack in the post stating that they are now a scheme member, it will also have their login details. Employees can login to access their own personal fund and can make adjustments as they see fit.
If the team member hasn't received their Scottish Widows package in the mail within their first 2 months of their joining date, they can log on to their Scottish Widows Portal. Select “Register Now’, and fill out your details (no need to fill out the Policy Number, as you can use your National Insurance Number instead). Please do not try to log in via the portal before Papaya has uploaded your information in accordance to the schedule above, as you will be denied access.
Some other key points of the scheme are as follows:
The certification level that has been chosen is basic salary only and will not include commission, bonuses or any over time payments. The contributions will be paid monthly and will be shown on the pay-slips.
As your contribution is a percentage of your pay, the amounts will automatically increase or decrease in accordance with your basic pay. These contributions will be taken from your pay and will include tax relief.
You may increase the contribution percentage you pay by contacting Non US Payroll team via email. Please note the company contribution will remain fixed as above. The total maximum contribution you can make is £40,000 p.a.
These percentages are gross percentages using the relief at source method. As basic rate tax relief is then added by the pension provider, the amount on your payslip will typically be the net amount, which is 80% of the employee's contribution.
These contribution percentages are in line with The Pension Regulator's Auto-enrollment legislation. Should the government's minimum contribution standards change further GitLab will contact you to advise the new levels to comply with legislation.
If you decide to opt out of the scheme you can do this within one month of the enrollment date by following the instructions in the information from Scottish Widows. The Opt Out deadlines are:
You have four weeks from when the Scottish Widows welcome letter is dated.
If you do opt out by this date, any contributions that have already been taken from your pay will be returned to you and you'll be treated as if you had never joined the pension scheme.
If you don't opt out by this date, you can stop contributing at any time, in accordance with the pension scheme rules. If you do this, both your contributions and GitLab's, up to that point, will remain invested in your pension pot until you take your benefits.
You can opt-out by completing the Scottish Widows ‘Opt-out form for Group Pension Scheme’. The form can be found line at http://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/aethirdparty. The form must be printed and completed, then returned to Total Rewards at total-rewards@gitlab.com
The pension provider will also be able to tell you when the one month opt-out period started, if you aren’t sure.
An opt-out from the pension scheme normally lasts for three years. If you've opted out, or stopped contributions to the scheme, GitLab is required to automatically enroll you into the scheme at a later date (normally every three years).
You can find all the information on the pension scheme including FAQS, understanding your pension, Investment Choices and Tools and Calculators at:
Scottish Widows:
You can also reach out to Willis Tower Watson to explain the details of the GitLab GPPP and answer any questions you may have.
If you decide to re-join the scheme you can do so by emailing or sending a signed letter to People Operations. If you send an email, it should be from your personal email address, please ensure it contains the phrase I confirm I personally submitted this notice to join a workplace pension scheme. You can only re-join once in any 12 month period.
Each month payroll will provide reports to People Operations that need to be kept for compliance. These will be filed in the Auto-Enrollment Pension folder on the Google Drive, accessible only to the People Operations team.
There's a workplace pension webpage linked from this pdf that contains information about all the options available.
When your policy is first set up, it'll be set to:
The policy website will tell you:
Although you are currently invested in a Pension Investment Approach you also have other options such as investing in our range of individual funds or changing to a Premier Pension Investment Approach.
Read about all these investment options, and the funds available, on the workplace pension webpage.
Changing your investment approach or funds could adversely affect your retirement income. Get advice, such as from Oakley Financial.
This is an advanced feature that carries significant risk. For team-members comfortable with this, it's not obvious how to enable it.
To access 'investing in our range of individual funds' online you need to call Scottish Widows, and ask:
The change may take a couple of days to come into effect, and they'll write and confirm the change.
Having enabled online fund management, you can search for and select the funds on the policy website.
The workplace pension page also has a link to a fund list, plus a PDF which explains:
A fund factsheet is provided for each fund with usual information such as previous performance.
Management charges vary by fund and are not on the fact sheets: use the charges sheet tool on the workplace pension page..
Team members are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (“SSP”)for up to 28 weeks, to be paid by GitLab. SSP is paid when a team member is sick for at least 4 days in a row (including non-working days); however, team members are not entitled to SSP for the first three "waiting" days.
leaves@gitlab.com as soon as possible.Out Sick in Time Off by Deel to ensure that annual sick leave entitlement is properly tracked. GitLab PTO is inclusive of any entitlement in respect of statutory sick pay.Team members are entitled to at least 28 vacation days which consist of 20 days of standard annual leave plus 8 public holidays. These days will accrue from the team member’s start date.
Vacation in Time Off by Deel to ensure that vacation entitlement is properly tracked.Statutory Maternity Leave: Team members can take up to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave.
Statutory Paternity Leave: Team members can take up to 2 weeks of Paternity Leave or up to 50 weeks of Shared Parental Leave.
Statutory Adoption Leave: Team members can take up to 52 weeks of Adoption Leave.
leaves@gitlab.com within 28 days if the date of placement (or UK arrival date for overseas adoptions) changes.Team members can receive Statutory Maternity Pay for up to 39 weeks:
If eligible, GitLab will supplement the team member's pay to ensure they receive 100% pay for up to 16 weeks of their leave.
To apply for Maternity Leave:
leaves@gitlab.com a completed MATB1 Certificate no later than 21 days before your leave start date.If you do not qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, you may qualify for Maternity Allowance.
Team members can receive Statutory Paternity Pay for up to 2 weeks which is £151.97 or 90% of the team member's average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) OR Shared Parental Leave Pay for up to 37 weeks which is £151.97 a week or 90% of the team member's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
To qualify, team members must have been continuously employed with GitLab for at least 26 weeks leading up to the "qualifying week" (15th week before the baby is due or the matching week if adopting).
If eligible, GitLab will supplement the team member's pay to ensure they receive 100% pay for up to 16 weeks of their leave.
To apply for Paternity Leave
leaves@gitlab.com a completed SPP Form if applying for Statutory Paternity Pay or one of the SPL Forms if applying for Shared Parental Leave pay.The following leave types run concurrently with GitLab PTO. Team members should initiate leave by selecting the appropriate option in Time Off by Deel. If none applies, the team members should notify their manager and the Absence Management team leaves@gitlab.com to initiate leave.
Magistrate Duty: Any team member who is a magistrate is entitled to leave to carry out their duties. Magistrates will need to be in court for at least 13 days or 26 half-days per year.
Justice of the Peace (Scotland): Any team member who is a Justice of the Peace is entitled to leave to carry out their duties.
Jury Service: Team members who are called for jury service are entitled to time off to complete the service. Jury Service usually lasts up to 10 days, but can last longer.
Parental Bereavement Leave: Team members are entitled to 2 weeks of leave for a child under 18 who has died or if the team member has a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Time off for Public Duties: Team members are entitled to a reasonable amount of time off if they are a local councillor, a school governor, a member of any statutory tribunal, a member of the managing or governing body of an educational establishment, a member of a health authority, a member of a school council or board in Scotland, a member of the Environment Agency or the Scottish Environment Protection agency, a member of the prison independent monitoring boards (England or Wales) or a member of the prison visiting committees (Scotland), a member of Scottish Water or a Water Customer Consultation Panel, or a trade union member. The amount of time should be agreed upon between the team member and the manager beforehand based on how long the duties might take, the amount of time the team member has already taken off for public duties, and how the time off will affect the business.
You can view the Certificate of Employers' Liability Insurance here.
The Total Rewards Analyst will collect the invoice and provide a department breakdown to Accounts Payable for AXA PPP each month.
Monthly AXA Invoices folder in the Benefits Google drive.Monthly AXA Bills spreadsheet.
GitLab uses TravelHub to assist with the administration of the bike to work/tax saver commuter scheme. The GitLab specific online portal can be found at GitLab Travel Hub. Team members will need to register and account to enter the GitLab specific online portal. Here is a link to TravelHub's FAQs about these programs.
From 2021, Cycle to work will have a maximum expenditure of 1250 EUR or 1500 EUR for an electric bike. The scheme may now be availed of once in 4 consecutive tax years, previously this was once every 5 years.
Once your account is created, select a Bike to Work UK partner shop. Pick the new bike and accessories if required. Upload the quote received from the bike ship to the TravelHub portal to have the order approved. The Total Rewards team will receive an email with the request to login, review, and approve the application (credentials can be found in 1password). Please note that all payments should be made to TravelHub directly and not to the supplier chosen by staff. TravelHub will pay the supplier once the employee has received their Bike or Ticket. Total Rewards will notify payroll to reduce the team member's gross salary by the cost of the bike using a Salary Sacrifice Agreement.
Once your account is created, select a Travel Operator. Select either a monthly or yearly ticket. Submit the travel ticket to the TravelHub portal to have the order approved. The Total Rewards team will receive an email with the request to login, review, and approve the application (credentials can be found in 1password). Total Rewards will notify payroll to reduce the team member's gross salary by the cost of the ticket using a Salary Sacrifice Agreement. Note: There is a 4% (plus VAT) booking fee for annual tickets and a 10 EUR (VAT inclusive) booking fee for monthly tickets paid for by the team member by being added to the price of the ticket. Once the total rewards team has approved the bike or ticket application, an invoice is generated. Once payment as been received, TravelHub emails the team member a voucher to use in the bike shop or tickets are dispatched in to the team member.
Additional details can be found on the Adding/Removing Team Members Help@hand Guide.