Criminal labour law

Fromont Briens brings you the expertise of its dedicated team to defend companies (legal entities), their managers and employees.

With more than 20 years' experience in criminal labour law, our lawyers specialised in this area operate on a daily basis, providing sound counsel to ensure that both the procedure and the criminal risk are under control.

This special area of law, which includes both labour and criminal law, deals with breaches committed in both individual and collective labour relations. Our firm assists companies at all stages of their social life. Our criminal labour law department, combined with our expertise in social compliance, enables a to offer an innovative social crisis management service.

“Anticipating, supporting and defending the employer against criminal risk within the company.”

Focus area

Collective relations: obstruction of employee representative bodies and trade union organisations ;
Individual relations: occupational accidents (injuries and involuntary homicide), illegal work, discrimination, moral and sexual harassment, etc. ;
Failure to comply with regulations relating to health and safety, working hours, precarious contracts ;
Slander and defamation ;
Abuse of trust / misuse of company assets / fraud ;
False testimony ;
Forgery and use of forged documents.

Risk management

Working with companies in analysing risk situations ;
Assistance in the drafting of mandatory documents ;
Implementation of coherent delegation of power schemes ;
Raising awareness of criminal risk among managers and executives ;
Assistance in the construction of defence strategies in the event of prosecutions.

Litigation strategy

Coaching and assistance during hearings before administrative authorities (Labour Inspectorate, DIRECCTE (Regional Directorates for Enterprises, Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs, Labour and Employment) etc.) and judicial authorities (Investigative services in the context of police custody or free hearings, preliminary hearings or hearings before the Investigating Judge (juge d’instruction), settlements and court hearing upon guilty plea (CRPC)) ;
Preparation and monitoring of criminal proceedings and pleadings before criminal courts.

Training

Criminal liability of the manager ;
Legal and case-law news in criminal labour law and its impact on companies ;
Subcontracting and lending of labour ;
Understanding the offence of obstruction and the employer’s room for manoeuvre when chairing employee representative bodies ;
Criminal proceedings: from the first elements of the investigation to the trial ;
Steps to follow in the event of a criminal hearing ;
Searches and police custody.

Publications

Prise en charge par l’employeur des frais de défense pénale d’un salarié poursuivi pour des faits liés à l’exercice de ses fonctions – Actualitédudroit.fr, September 2017 ;
Licencier pour des faits visés dans une procédure pénale ne heurte pas la présomption d’innocence – Jurisprudence Sociale Lamy, n° 447, 9 February 2018 ;
Responsabilité pénale en cas de blessures involontaires : une responsabilité de principe – Jurisprudence Sociale Lamy, n° 452, 2 May 2018 ;
Responsabilité du commettant : autorité de la chose jugée au pénal – Semaine Juridique Social n° 50, 18 December 2018 ;
Infraction à la législation sur le travail de nuit : valeur probante du procès-verbal constatant l’infraction – Jurisprudence Sociale Lamy, n° 467, 9 January 2019 ;
La simple visite de l’inspection du travail n’est pas un acte interruptif de prescription de l’action publique – Jurisprudence sociale Lamy, n°480, 22 July 2019.

Ranking

“Outstanding: Labour law – High-risk litigation and criminal labour law” – 2019 Ranking (Incontournable: Droit social – Contentieux à risques et Droit pénal du travail – Classement 2019) – Décideurs Magazine.