This article is for clients who want to learn more about the changes that can be made to an EOR employee's Employment Agreement (EA) and how long it may time for the amendments to take effect.

As a client, you may wish to make changes to an employee's Employment Agreement from time to time, either before or after onboarding the employee.

While some of the changes can be made immediately upon request, certain changes to the EA will either require a review by the Deel legal team, or are simply prohibited by local law.

There are two types of changes you can make:

Adding, removing or adjusting the wording of clauses in the EA
Modifying specific values in the contract (e.g. salary, probation period)

Adding, removing, or adjusting clauses in the EA

You can add, remove or adjust clauses in the Employment Agreement before the EA is signed by the employee and counter-signed by Deel. Please note that Deel will require some time to process both common and advanced changes and reflect them in the EAs.

Change type	What it includes	Estimated processing time
Common Change	Removing non-Circumvention clause	1 - 5 business days
Common Change	Removing non-competition clause	Deel review not required; but client and employee most separately acknowledge and approve the change
Advanced change	Removing probation period	Up to 10 business days
Advanced change	All other requests involving word changes, removing standard clauses, or adding additional clauses	Please allow for 2 - 3 business days for every round of communication with Deel's legal team to review the requested EA language changes

Modifying specific values in the contract

Need to modify specific values in the EA, such as increasing salary, increasing probation period, or amending working hours?

You can do that easily, and - generally speaking - these amendments will not require Deel review. This is because any change that benefits the employee (is good for them) can usually be processed immediately.

However, EA changes that disadvantage the employee will require review and approval by Deel to ensure compliance with local employment laws.

The estimated processing times listed below should be taken as general guidance only. In some countries, Deel review and approval may always be required.

Type of EA amendment	Restrictions	Estimated Processing Time
Contract Start Dates & End Dates	Contracts must be future dated Contracts cannot be backdated	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Job Title	Certain job titles not permitted (like C-Suite and Founder titles)	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Seniority Level	Certain job titles not permitted (like C-Suite and Founder titles)	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Employment type (full-time or part-time employee)		Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required
Working hours, or working days		Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required
Employment country, state, or province	For relocations to a new country, this requires ending the current employment contract and starting a new one in the new employment country
Employee's nationality		Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required
Increasing paid time off days	Deposit will be doubled if the entitlement is higher than employment country standard.	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Probation period increase		Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Probation period decrease	Additional deposit required	Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required
Salary increase	Additional deposit required	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Salary decrease		Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required
Annual variable compensation increase	Additional deposit required	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Annual variable compensation decrease	Additional deposit required	Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required
Fixed allowance increase	Additional deposit required	Immediate; Deel review generally not required
Fixed allowance decrease		Up to 5 business days Deel review and approval is required

Important notes

- Most post-onboarding changes only take effect after all parties have acknowledged or signed their respective agreements

If you request changes after an employee has been onboarded, most of these changes can only take effect after all three of the following conditions are met:

You have signed or accepted the amendment to EA, and…
The employee has signed the amendment to the EA, and…
Deel has countersigned the amendment to the EA

Deel can only support instant changes if it is allowed under local laws and compliance regulations.

- Standard payroll cut-off dates still apply

For countries where backdating is not enabled, any contract change requests that affects payroll or invoices (e.g. salary increase) that are processed after the payroll cut-off date will only be reflected at the start of the following pay cycle, not the current pay cycle.

For example, for a pay increase to take effect from September 1, it must have been processed by the cut-off date for September payroll. Otherwise, the increase will only take effect from the start of the following payroll (October 1).

Please note that Deel supports pro-rata salary increases in selected countries only.

- We can accomodate non-standard or customized redline requests

Yes, if you have specific, non-standard, or customized requests, Deel can engage external counsel to address specific, non-standard, or customized requests on your behalf.

However, this external legal review service would be at your own cost.

We aim to implement your change requests based on their overall impact and alignment with our services. Please keep in mind that Deel is not a law firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

[ACCORDION] How long does the change request process take at Deel?

It depends on the type of change request and if it is considered beneficial to the employee (i.e. it is good for them). These kinds of changes generally do not require Deel review and approval, and therefore can be implemented immediately in the EA.

Other changes will require Deel review and approval to ensure compliance. In such cases, we usually expect the full process to take a maximum of 10 business days. However, each round of back-and-forth with our legal department may add up to 2 to 3 business days to the process.

[ACCORDION] What platform does Deel use for redlining documents?

Deel typically uses Google Docs for documents with active redlines, due to the ease of collaboration and version control which is necessary for a smooth process.

[ACCORDION] Why are there inconsistencies in your EA templates across different countries?

Our EA templates are tailored to comply with local laws and regulations, which can lead to apparent inconsistencies between documents for different countries. It is essential to recognize and respect these local nuances when redlining the EAs.

Even though the template language may be inconsistent from country to country, please note that all of our EA templates are locally compliant and have been thoroughly vetted by either our in-house legal team or external legal partners.

They are designed to meet the specific legal requirements of each jurisdiction.

[ACCORDION] How flexible is Deel with accommodating change requests?

Deel is committed to accommodating customer requests as much as possible. However, our ability to implement changes may be limited by local regulations and the need to ensure that the EAs remain compliant with local laws.

[ACCORDION] Why can’t we provide redline instructions via email or PDF?

We prefer providing comments and language requests directly within the EA document. This method reduces the risk of misinterpretation or loss of instructions. If you have specific clauses or sentences to be included, sharing them directly allows our legal team to accommodate your requests more accurately, where permissible.

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