Comprehensive employment defense for industrial multinational

The Challenge

IndustrialCorp Europe, the Spanish subsidiary of an automotive sector multinational, had carried out a workforce restructuring affecting 23 employees at its production facility on the outskirts of Barcelona. Eight of the affected workers filed claims before the labor courts, alleging unfair dismissal, unpaid overtime salary differences, and violations of working conditions established in the collective bargaining agreement.

The situation was particularly sensitive for three reasons. First, several claims shared similar factual grounds, meaning that an unfavorable ruling in one case could create a precedent usable by the other claimants. Second, the aggregate financial exposure exceeded 1.8 million euros in severance payments, interim wages, and surcharges. Third, the parent company required a resolution that would not compromise future restructurings at other European plants.

Our Approach

We designed a unified defense strategy that treated all 8 cases as a single coordinated proceeding, even though they were formally separate files. This allowed us to maintain argumentative consistency, avoid contradictions across the various defense briefs, and manage documentary and witness evidence centrally.

We classified the cases into two groups: those where negotiation was preferable due to procedural weaknesses in the execution of the dismissals, and those where the company had a strong legal position. For the first group, we made conciliation offers at the SMAC mediation service with terms below the estimated cost of an unfavorable ruling, securing swift agreements that also included confidentiality clauses and waivers of future claims. For the second group, we prepared exhaustive defenses with economic expert reports, complete internal documentation, and qualified witnesses, taking the cases to trial with full confidence in the outcome.

Results

All eight cases were resolved favorably within five months. Five were settled through conciliation agreements at amounts significantly below the initial claims, and three through fully upheld court rulings that validated the legality of the dismissals. Total savings compared to the claimed amounts reached 1.2 million euros. Furthermore, the confidentiality clauses in the agreements and the favorable rulings established a solid foundation for future restructuring decisions at the group’s other European plants.