Challenges of Regulating Future Labour Markets

The New Zealand Labour Law Society’s third biennial conference will be held on Friday 27th November 2015 at the Law School, Victoria University of Wellington, 55 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

Keynote Speakers

Dr Virginia Mantouvalou
Reader in Human Rights and Labour Law, University College, London.
'Human Rights at Work'

Professor Paul Secunda
Director, Labor and Employment Law Program Marquette Law School, Wisconsin
‘The Coming International Trend of Superannuation Workplace Pensions’ 

Dr Anthony Forsyth
Professor of Law, RMIT University, Melbourne.
‘The Australian Productivity Commission’s report on Industrial Relations Reform’

The theme of the conference is Challenges of Regulating Future Labour Markets.

The draft programme can be downloaded here. Papers received will be added shortly.

The conference has an exciting programme and has attracted a wide range of papers including several from overseas jurisdictions and covering a wide variety of topics. Our two keynote speakers from the United Kingdom and the United States will be joined by a number of Australian speakers including Shae McCrystal who will present a paper that follows up from her 2013 paper, "Organising Middle Earth?” and which will explore liability that could arise where a group of contractors collectively withdraw their labour in the pursuit of better terms and conditions. Other Australian papers focus on the effective regulation and enforcement of labour law, also a topical issue in New Zealand. For example a paper by Tess Hardy and Jon Howe will examine how ‘gatekeepers’ both within and without firms may be targeted by compliance legislation. We also hope to have a presentation on the labour law recommendations of the Australian Productivity Commission.

There will also be an excellent representation by New Zealand speakers including academics and practitioners. A number of papers will consider aspects of health and safety ranging from worker participation through modern threats to safety such as bullying and the related question of compensation for mental health problems associated with the workplace environment. The failures to fully address workplace privacy issues will be covered in a paper by Paul Roth and a number of other papers deal with issues relating to the resolution of employment relationship problems.

To view video of the keynote sessions please see the links below:

Keynote 1: Virginia Mantouvalou - “Human Rights and Labour Law”

Keynote 2: Anthony Forsyth - “Australia's '30 Years War' over Labour Law Reform”

Keynote 3: Paul Secunda - “The Coming International Trend of Superannuation Workplace Pensions”