Benefits not included in the employment contract [duplicate]

Question

I was offered a massive deal with a big (and extremely profitable) company. Besides great pay, they also offer a number of awesome benefits.

However, those benefits aren't listed in the employment contract. I asked them why, and they said the benefits are not a contractual matter and are provided by the company in addition to the obligations written in the contract. They also said that if the benefits were to change, all the staff would have to sign new contracts.

Is this standard or should I be wary?

I'm also sure they won't change/adjust the contract just for me (I assume they've been using the same template for years). Is there any other way, besides taking their word for it, to be sure I'll get them?

Answer 1

Is this standard or should I be wary?

I don't know if this is standard practice in your part of the world or not (since you haven't indicated where you work), but where I have worked in the northeast US, that has always been the case.

Benefits can and do change over the years. For every company where I have worked, they have been outside of any contracts. (I'm assuming here that you haven't negotiated some special benefits for yourself that aren't contained in the standard benefits package. The only non-standard benefit I ever negotiated was 1 additional week of vacation beyond what was standard for new hires. Everything else has always been whatever the standard benefits package contained.)

You should get a copy of the benefits package being offered to you. It's not part of your contract, but you'll want to understand what benefits you'll be getting (in the first year at least) before you agree. That way, you can judge the entire offer as a whole.

You likely don't need to worry here. As you point out, companies (at least in the US), typically don't change benefits for individuals, but they review and revise them for the company as a whole - usually once every year.