Employment contracts drafted for a senior tech exec in Singapore/Indonesia

Background

Our Client approached us in June 2021 requesting our assistance to draft an employment contract for an American citizen who is appointed CEO for two different companies in Singapore and Indonesia. The individual is based in Indonesia. The Client is based in Israel.

After an e-mail and phone exchange with me, our Client settled Bejarano ADF Consultants Group PLC’s engagement fees and signed our engagement letter. Unfortunately, we were unable to have a face-to-face meeting with our multinational Client because of Covid travel restrictions.

Engagement planning

• Bejarano ADF Consultants Group PLC emailed our Client a detailed project plan, outlining i) total expected engagement fees ii) total engagement period iii) the weekly and monthly deliverables and iv) expected engagement problems and solutions.
• The detailed project plan helps Client understand the procedures, expected timelines and potential challenges and solutions, for this service.
• In this case, we also explained to our Client considerations related to the labour law and empoyment contracts in Singapore and Indonesia. In addition to standard clauses applicable in both countries, we agreed with our Client any unique terms and conditions which they wanted to include in the contract.
• In the meantime, our Client supplied our in-house Legal and Compliance Department with the required Know Your Customer due diligence documents.

Employment contract drafting – Singapore

• Based on our Client’s feedback, and with the assistance of our in-house Legal and Compliance Department, I prepared an employment contract template for Singapore. While there is no prescribed format for a Singapore employment contract, the document must be prepared in accordance with Singapore labour and employment law.
• Once drafted, our in-house Legal and Compliance Department reviewed the contract and reverted with some amendments and clarifications.
• I then sent the draft contract to our Client for review, and they reverted with some amendments. Once these amendments had been addressed, the final draft was sent to our Client for review, approval and e-signature.
• The final quality deliverable was sent to the Client within one month of the initial communication with our Client.

Employment contract drafting – Indonesia

• Our Client instructed us to include some specific terms and conditions in the draft contract for the CEO position in Indonesia.
• Once we had this detail, we engaged our local law firm in Jakarta to prepare the employment contract draft, in accordance with Indonesian labour and employment law.
• The law firm initially prepared an English version draft which I forwarded to our Client for review.
• The Client reverted with comments, and these comments were communicated to the law firm.
• The Jakarta law firm subsequently reverted with an updated draft which I then forwarded to the Client.
• Our Client reverted that the draft was acceptable.
• As per Indonesian labour law, all employment contracts must also be translated into Bahasa Indonesia if they are in another language. Using our local supplier in Jakarta, we arranged for a professional translation of the document which was again verified for accuracy by the local law firm.
• The English and Indonesian versions of the contract were sent to our Client for e-signature and returned to us.
• As per Indonesian law, the draft employment contract must also be endorsed by a local government office. Our partner in Jakarta arranged for the signed contract to be stamped.
• The final quality deliverable was completed within two months of the initial communication with our Client.

Engagement completion

• The Client confirmed that the candidate had signed the draft employment contract (English and Indonesian).
• I requested a professional reference from our Client, and our team also requested the Client to post an online review.