Labour

Social & Corporate Advisory

“Emphasis on the experience and reputation of the team, providing valuable support (…) Handles a wide range of employment matters and able to assist clients with day-to-day advisory work and collective bargaining agreements. Advises key clients from the insurance, pharmaceutical, transport and IT sectors. Further strengths include restructurings, transfer of undertakings and contract termination with additional support in compliance.”

Chambers and Partners

Labour

Paramount to corporate management, labour law is often involved in striking a delicate balance between corporate requirements and individual sensitivities, with outcomes potentially affecting the work place and the company well beyond the short run.

Our labour team has an extensive track record in the strategic and comprehensive support of our clients, in Portugal as the African jurisdictions in which we operate with VdA Legal Partners, widely regarded by the domestic and local markets for its breadth and depth of expertise and effectiveness in a myriad of complex labour and employment matters, notably standing out as the a specialised team in social security and civil servants’ law. Often drawing upon the expertise of lawyers in other practice areas of the Social & Corporate Advisory Group, we work as one multidisciplinary team across sectors, notably in the life sciences, transports & infrastructures, banks & financial institutions, energy & natural resources, as well as real estate & tourism industries.

Recognising that labour relations are undergoing a process of profound transformation in many of their original matrices, creating new challenges for organisations’ human resources teams, our Labour practice has developed an innovative platform specifically focused on the analysis of issues related to the future of labour relations and their impact on human resources management.

The unavoidable topics of Labour Tech, Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), non-discrimination, emerging work models, and sustainability require the development of new innovative approaches by organisations and their legal advisers. With a view to monitoring and actively addressing this transformation process, our Labour team created HR Future.

Decades of experience and a deep understanding of the workings of negotiation and mediation procedures, as well as the judicial systems of VdA Legal Partners' jurisdictions, empower our lawyers with unparalleled capabilities in effective risk assessment, crucial in helping our clients successfully pursue their strategy.

Areas of work

restructuring, flexible working, workplace monitoring, discrimination, employee representation, appointment and severance of senior executives to redundancies and litigation
executive and employee share schemes, benefit plans and other employee benefits
advising on major reorganizations, sales acquisitions and other commercial transactions with significant employment content
negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, advising companies and respective associations on its different phases, from the structuring of negotiation proposals to dispute resolution
employment contracts and consultancy agreements for directors and other key employees, as well as reviewing contractual documentation such as handbooks and manuals and drafting and enforcing restrictive covenants
day-to-day advice to internal HR departments
labour litigation