Employment law

MOSAIK advises employers, SMEs, mid-cap companies and French subsidiaries of foreign groups, in setting up, running and securing their collective labour relations.

The CSE (works council)

The CSE is the central institution of social dialogue in France. The firm assists you at every stage of its life cycle:

• organising staff elections: pre-electoral agreement, timetable, electronic voting, election disputes;
• operation of the body: internal rules, meetings, resources, delegation hours;
• recurring consultations (strategic orientations, economic situation, social policy) and ad hoc consultations;
• the economic, social and environmental database (BDESE);
• use of expert assessments and their challenge;
• prevention of the offence of obstructing employee representation (délit d'entrave).

Negotiating your collective agreements

The company-level agreement has become the key tool for organising work: working time and its arrangement, compensation, remote working, gender equality, quality of life at work. MOSAIK assists you in every negotiation configuration, including without a union delegate, and secures:

• preparation and negotiation strategy;
• drafting of agreements and their validity and filing formalities;
• mandatory negotiations;
• revision and termination of existing agreements and established practices.

Restructurings and transactions

Reorganisation, relocation, merger, site disposal, collective redundancy plan: every transaction has an employment dimension that determines its timetable and its success. The firm coordinates the information and consultation of the CSE with the imperatives of the transaction, manages the transfer of employment contracts and the fate of collective agreements, and conducts, where required, collective dismissal procedures, in conjunction with our mergers and acquisitions team.

Collective disputes

In the event of a strike, walkout or site occupation, MOSAIK assists management under time pressure: legal characterisation of the action, securing of management measures, urgent court applications where abuses justify them, and above all negotiation of a lasting way out of the crisis.

Protected employees

Terminating the contract of an employee representative follows a specific procedure, under the supervision of the labour inspectorate. The firm secures every step, from the invitation to the preliminary meeting through to administrative authorisation, and handles appeals before the minister and the administrative courts.

Employment law audits and value sharing

Beyond crisis situations, MOSAIK conducts employment compliance audits (employee representation bodies, applicable agreements, mandatory postings and registers, working time), particularly ahead of an acquisition or a fundraising round, where employment-related liabilities directly affect valuation.

The firm also assists with the implementation of value-sharing schemes: incentive plans, profit-sharing, employee savings plans, bonuses: retention tools that all rest on well-constructed collective agreements.

Frequently asked questions

At what point is a CSE required?

Setting up the CSE (works council) is mandatory once the company has had eleven employees for twelve consecutive months. Its powers expand significantly at the fifty-employee threshold.

Can an agreement be negotiated without a union?

Yes. In companies without a union delegate, French law provides alternative negotiation routes: with elected CSE members, with mandated employees, or by employee referendum depending on headcount. Each route has its own validity conditions, which must be scrupulously observed.

What does the employer risk in the event of an irregularity?

Depending on the case: annulment of the agreement or of the election, suspension of the project during the consultation, damages, or even prosecution for obstruction of employee representation. Securing matters upstream always costs less than litigation.

Do you assist foreign groups?

Yes. MOSAIK regularly assists foreign groups established in France, whose HR practices must be adapted to French law, with teams working in English, Spanish and Chinese.