End-to-end support for restructurings, job protection plans (PSE), collective mutual termination agreements (RCC), and business transfers.
Restructuring with legal certainty and sound labor relations
Reorganizing a company, closing a site, eliminating positions, acquiring a business, or implementing a job protection plan (PSE): every restructuring project involves a precise sequence of legal, labor relations, and managerial steps, the success of which determines the company's ability to carry out its transformation.
The firm supports employers on all restructuring projects, from initial scoping to operational implementation, in constant coordination with HR teams, operational management, and employee representatives.
What our support covers
- Unilateral or negotiated job protection plans (PSE)
- Collective mutual termination agreements (RCC)
- Voluntary departure plans (PDV)
- Reorganizations and job cuts outside collective redundancy procedures
- Collective performance agreements (APC)
- Transfers of businesses and activities (Article L.1224-1 of the French Labor Code)
- International restructurings and multi-country projects
- Collective bargaining with employee representatives
The scoping phase: structuring before committing
Every successful restructuring begins with a precise definition of objectives, constraints, and timeline. Which positions are affected? What is the geographical scope? What are the cash constraints? What message will be communicated internally and externally? What level of severance is economically sustainable?
This upstream phase, often underestimated, avoids painful changes of course during the procedure and allows the company to enter into dialogue with employee representatives with a clear and defensible position.
Dialogue with employee representatives at the heart of the process
The success of a PSE, an RCC, or a PDV depends largely on the quality of the dialogue with employee representatives and trade unions. The firm acts both as strategic advisor and as negotiator, supporting internal teams to build an agreement that legally secures the operation while remaining acceptable to all parties.
Legally securing the documentation
Information and consultation documents, the economic report, the "Book 2" document (Livre II) on the employment measures, selection criteria, support measures, method agreement, majority agreement: every document must be legally flawless and consistent with the overall framework. An error in the selection criteria, insufficient support measures, or an inconsistency between the economic report and the accounting reality can lead to the suspension of the procedure or the annulment of the administrative approval.
Business transfers and Article L.1224-1
Transfer operations (sale of a business, merger, outsourcing, takeover of an activity) trigger the automatic application of Article L.1224-1 of the French Labor Code, with significant consequences for employment contracts, collective agreements, and unilateral commitments. The firm supports these operations in coordination with corporate counsel, to anticipate the employment impact from the due diligence phase onward and to structure the transaction so as to limit post-closing risks.
Lessons from the field
The firm's experience of complex operations in a range of sectors (publishing, retail, manufacturing, distribution, luxury, banking, education) allows it to share concrete lessons learned on the choices to be made, the pitfalls to avoid, and market practice regarding severance and support measures. Each project benefits from this accumulated experience while receiving the specific attention its situation requires.
