Employment law

Employment law is one of PwC’s Legal services key practice areas. Our international network allows us to support clients not just in individual countries, but also on a multi-territory basis.

In each territory we have employment law specialists who advise clients on core matters such as preparing employment documentation, compliance with local laws, employee terminations, employment disputes, and works council/union issues.

The following are the areas in which we typically assist clients who need multi-territory employment law support:

• International mergers and acquisitions - This includes diligence on the target or merger partner, advice on the impact transfers of undertakings laws (especially in the EU), works council and consultation obligations, restructuring costs and procedures, contract negotiations and post-merger integration.
• Reducing people-related costs - This includes helping clients understand the costs and procedures in making redundancies in a number of territories and how to manage such a process; it also includes advice on other cost saving routes such as short-time working.
• Reward plans - We advise on the compliance of global share plans with local rules, for instance to ensure proper communication and consultation is carried out and to avoid infringing discrimination or other local laws.
• Globalisation of HR policies - We help organisations put in place global HR policies which are compliant locally, and can provide training to support that in areas such as diversity and discrimination.
• Restructuring groups - Working with our colleagues in PwC Legal’s International Corporate Structuring network, we help clients with the complexities of changing their business structures, covering areas such as employee consultation, staff transfers, redundancies, and the employment law issues concerning the use of the European company.
• Business visitors and other assignee compliance aspects.