The two organizations are closely connected, and their activities are complementary. The broad outlines of the merger are already established. They retain Cornillier Avocats for advice on business law. During our in-house discussions, attorneys in the labor department identify a risk: the two structures are not covered by the same collective agreement. However, the merger is essential to the future development of both organizations, and would give them greater weight when dealing with the public authorities.

Issues

> Providing support for the implementation of the project and the necessary restructuring
> Enabling a trouble-free merger while avoiding any disturbance of the users
> Keeping the risks of the merger's rejection by labor and/or the authorities to a minimum
> Assessing the issues involved in applying different, unequal collective agreements
> Transferring the assets and their related contracts into the new structure and making them secure while maintaining continuity of the activity.

Solution

> Joint management of the case by the business and labor departments.
> Posting a schedule with an action plan on the intranet, and updating and amending it in real time.
> Identification and analysis of labor risks in the collective agreements
> Advice on three possible strategies: walk away/adapt/negotiate

Results

Successful merger thanks to close supervision and good risk management
> Implementation of negotiation, selected by the client in full knowledge of the risks incurred
> Renegotiation of the agreement, with progressive application of agreements for the new structure, in particular for the standardization of working hours.
> Negotiations in progress to obtain public financing