Caroline Mehlem

Caroline Mehlem

Senior Associate | Attorney at law

Employment & Employee Participation

Caroline has considerable experience in guiding medium-sized to large national and international enterprises in every aspect of employment law, from individual dismissals and legal scans to complex reorganisations and company acquisitions. She also assists many educational institutions ranging from school districts to universities. In addition to ‘regular’ employment law, she also has a special interest in cross-border employment and education law.

Caroline is a highly motivated attorney who takes a solution-oriented approach underpinned by her strong interpersonal and decisive qualities. Her commitment, expertise and clarity inspire trust among her clients and colleagues. Caroline is French in origin and also has German, Spanish and English roots, making her multilingual – something which is of great practical benefit.

Education

Caroline studied Dutch law at Leiden University, majoring in International Law.

Career

Caroline has worked at De Clercq as an attorney since 2003, with a broad focus on employment law. She puts her multilingual background and international interest to good use in advising numerous international clients. She specialises in Education Law and Employment Law from a European perspective, and has completed mediation training, which also serves her practice well. As well as being an attorney, Caroline is a board member with the Technolab Leiden Foundation.

Caroline’s daily practice

On an almost daily basis, Caroline deals with matters such as individual dismissals, reorganisations, working remotely from abroad, expatriates, unacceptable behaviour and the investigation of this, and disability in the workplace. She also provides advice to companies at the policy level. Caroline acts as in-house counsel for a variety of companies, and values the opportunity to get to know her clients well. This often leads to fruitful collaborations that last for many years. The same applies to the educational institutions with which Caroline has long-term involvements with respect to employment law matters.

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The latest developments

Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

The WHOA and employee rights

10 July 2025

In our previous HERO blog, we discussed the role of works councils in a WHOA procedure. It became clear that the legislator considers it essential for employee participation to be involved at an early stage of a WHOA process. After all, a WHOA procedure can ultimately have significant consequences for employees. For instance, how are employee rights arising from employment contracts handled? And is it possible to terminate these contracts through a WHOA agreement? In this blog, we will explore these questions in more detail, including a discussion of relevant case law.

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Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

How can employee participation in healthcare be designed to be future-proof?

8 July 2025

In a recent report by the Governance Innovation and Advisory Committee (IAC), titled ‘Employee Participation and Co-Determination in Healthcare: Towards Innovative Forms of Participation?’, healthcare organizations share their experiences with new forms of input, engagement, and decision-making. The conclusion: formal councils are valuable, but no longer always align with today’s complex healthcare organizations.

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Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

“Healthy towards retirement”: extension of RVU levy relief for physically demanding work

13 June 2025

On 28 May 2025, Minister Van Hijum (Social Affairs and Employment) informed the House of Representatives about the implementation f the agreements from the “Healthy towards retirement” accord. This negotiated agreement between the government and representatives of employers and employees was presented on 18 October 2024 and focuses on measures to help workers reach retirement age in good health. A key element is the adjustment and extension of the relief from the final levy on early retirement schemes (RVU). This blog briefly explains what an RVU is and outlines the proposed changes.

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