Monday 27 November 2023
Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike: Towards an ICJ Resolution?
Speakers:
- Lord John Hendy KC (UCL Laws, Old Square Chambers)
- Professor Tonia Novitz (Bristol)
- Professor Martins Paparinskis (UCL Laws and International Law Commission)
Chair: Professors Virginia Mantouvalou and Nicola Countouris (UCL Laws)
About the event:
Does the ILO Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise 1948 (No 87) protect the right to strike? The ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, a committee of independent experts responsible for monitoring the application of ratified Conventions by Member States, has taken the view that the right to strike is a corollary to the right to freedom of association. However, the Employers’ group has been questioning this, and this led to a crisis in the ILO in recent years.
On the 10th of November, the Governing Body of the ILO voted to refer the dispute over the right to strike to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under article 37 of the ILO Constitution that provides that any question or dispute relating to the interpretation of Conventions can be referred to the ICJ.
In this public event, experts in labour law and international law will consider the questions, challenges and opportunities raised by this development.
Thursday 1 February 2024
Riding High, Riding Low: Work Relations After IWGB v Deliveroo
Speakers:
- Prof Lizzie Barmes (QMUL)
- Prof Anne Davies (Oxford)
- Lord John Hendy KC (UCL Laws, Old Square Chambers)
- Prof Anthony Kerr (UCD)
Chair: Dr Hitesh Dhorajiwala (Devereux Chambers and UCL Laws)
About the event:
In a judgment delivered in November 2023, the UK Supreme Court found that delivery couriers working for Deliveroo were in fact genuine self-employed. Fatal to their claim of being workers in an employment relationship was a broadly worded substitution clause present in their contracts, making the finding of 'personal performance' in the provision of their work impossible. A panel of experts discusses this decision and the implications of the judgment for the fundamental categories of UK labour law, the 'employee' and 'worker' categories in particular.
Friday 14 June 2024
Scope for Progress: The Future of Personal Work
Speakers:
- Advocate General Tamara Capeta (CJEU)
- Prof Nicola Countouris (UCL Laws)
- Prof Valerio De Stefano (Osgoode Hall Law School)
- Prof Mark Freedland FBA (Oxford)
- Prof Virginia Mantouvalou (UCL Laws)
About the event:
This one day workshop brings together a number of UK, European, and international academics and experts, and seeks to explore and assess the impact and further potential of the concept of ‘Personal Work Relation’ (PWR) in two distinct ways. Firstly, and in the short term, in terms of its use in recently adopted legal reforms and currently ongoing proposals (late morning session). Secondly, and in the longer term, in the context of a number of emerging challenges to the traditional paradigms of labour law and its scope, for example those arising from climate change/just transitions, migration, new waves of automation/heteromation/digitalisation, new and old forms of unpaid (gendered) labour, the growing recognition of labour rights as human rights, etc.
This workshop is co-funded by UCL Laws and an Osgoode's Nathanson Grant.