Activities

Conceptualising and Enforcing Privacy Workshop- 6 December 2024

The Conceptualising and Enforcing Privacy for Workers workshop ran on Friday 6 December in Rutherford House at Victoria University of Wellington.

The purpose of this workshop was to map the way that workers' privacy is increasingly under threat in the light of new technology and to consider how law might respond to this

Organised by Dr Amanda Reilly
, School of Business and Government VUW with visiting scholar from Washington and Lee University Professor Joshua Fairfield
in conjunction with the New Zealand Labour Law Society and the Privacy Foundation of New Zealand.

The first keynote speaker Associate Professor Julia Powles Director of the UWA Tech and Policy Lab set the tone for an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating day using the ways that people working professional sport are increasingly subject to extreme and intrusive physical monitoring and management via algorithm as an entry point to highlighting trends in the world of work more generally

Other speakers on the day were a mix of practicing lawyers and brilliant emerging new researchers as well as senior and established academics. There was also a lively panel discussion on Perspectives from Civil Society featuring union and public and private sector perspectives.

Professor Colin Gavaghan of Bristol University and Carol Jess, University of Bath closed the day in a second keynote which focused particularly on AI and employment and emerging law in the European Union.

The overall conclusion of the day was hopeful. While technological and social change have been rapid and it is fair to say law has not kept up, law is not intrinsically unable to regulate these changes and with global cooperation and dialogue, new and better law is possible.
 
 The Society looks forward to the production of an edited collection of papers based on the workshop which it is intended will be launched at the next LSAANZ conference 3-5 December 2025.
 

Professor Tonia Novitz Road Tour- February 2024

 The New Zealand Labour Law Society was delighted to support a "road tour" by Professor Tonia Novitz of Bristol University in February 2024.

Professor Novitz is a Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol Law School in the UK. A graduate of the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) and Balliol College, Oxford, she has held fellowships at the International Institute for Labour Studies (Geneva), the European University Institute (Florence), the University of Melbourne and the University of Auckland. From 2019 - 2023, she was chair of the steering committee of the international Labour Law Research Network (LLRN). She is currently a UK representative on the advisory board of International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW), and a Vice President of the UK Institute of Employment Rights. She was a founding co-director of the Bristol Centre for Law at Work. Her research interests encompass collective labour rights, international and EU trade, sustainability and migration. Her publications have been cited in the Supreme Court of Canada and the UK Supreme Court. Recently, she has written on the relationship between sustainable development and labour standards in the gig economy, as well as the ways in which sustainable development chapters in EU free trade agreements may be enforced.

As part of the "road tour" Professor Novitz visited Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch meeting with colleagues and students and presenting seminars at Auckland University, Victoria University of Wellington and Canterbury University. 

Sixth New Zealand Labour Law Society Conference 16-17 November 2023, Auckland University, Business School

Keynote Speakers:

Distinguished Professor Anthony Forsyth RMIT University

Simon Mitchell KC (Hobson Chambers)

After Dinner Speaker: Emeritus Professor Margaret Wilson DCNZM

Closing Remarks :Dr Amanda Reilly (as co-chairperson of NZLLS)

Conference Programme

Donation to the New Zealand Legal Information Institute (July 2021)

The New Zealand Labour Law Society were very happy to make a donation to the New Zealand Legal Information Institute to support the digitalisation of historical material relating to the Awards system. This project will preserve an important part of New Zealand's Industrial Relations history and provide a valuable free primary resource for researchers in the future.

Zoom Seminar (2 October 2020)

On Friday 2 October 2020 the Society offered a Zoom seminar around the theme of  “Employment Law in an uncertain environment: Utopia or Dystopia?”

This was recorded and can be viewed here

 

Convener: Graeme Colgan, Barrister and former Chief Judge of the Employment Court of New Zealand

Speakers and Topics:

Professor Gordon Anderson, Law Faculty, Victoria University of Wellington "Structural Integrity- Employment Law and the Pandemic" 

John Goddard, Barrister, Lambton Chambers "Access to justice" 

Dr Andrew Dallas, Chief, Employment Relations Authority "The Authority and CoVID-19" 

Nicola Green, Massey University’s School of Management "Working from home in times of disruption and in the future: implications for workers and organisations" 

Dr Amanda Reilly and Kathleen Makale, School of Accounting and Commercial Law Victoria University of Wellington "Who pays? Employees, tax and the costs of working from home." 

 Professor Annick Masselot, School of Law, University of Canterbury "Who works and who gets paid?"

Anna Sturman and Dr Matt Scobie, University of Canterbury University Business School "Economies of Mana and horizons of change" 

Dr Dawn Duncan, Faculty of Law, University of Otago "Worker health" 

 Dr Sanna Malinen, University of Canterbury University Business School and Prof Katharina Naswall, Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury "Covid and Wellbeing" 

Peter Upson, Public Trust "Artificial Intelligence and Workplace

Fifth Biennial conference (15-16 November 2019, Victoria University of Wellington)

Keynote speakers:
Professor Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol, England
Associate Professor Joanna Howe, University of Adelaide

Conference Programme

Special Issue of the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations
Editorial Note 

Vol 44 No 2 2020

Fourth Biennial conference (24-25 November 2017, Canterbury University)

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Judy Fudge, Kent University, England
Dr Alysia Blackham, University of Melbourne
Professor John Howe, University of Melbourne

Chief Judge Christina Inglis  Dinner Speech

Special Issues of the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations:
Vol 43 No 2 2018
Vol 43 No 3 2018


Third Biennial conference (27 November 2015, Victoria University of Wellington)

Keynote Speakers:
Dr Virginia Mantouvalou, University College, London.
Professor Paul Secunda, Marquette Law School, Wisconsin
Professor Anthony Forsyth, RMIT University, Melbourne

Conference Programme

Special Issues of the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations
Vol 41 No 3 2016
Vol 41 No 2 2016

Second Biennial Conference (22 November 2013, Auckland University of Technology)

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Keith Ewing, King's College, London
Professor Margaret Wilson, University of Waikato
Professor Andrew Stewart, University of Adelaide Law School

Chief Judge Graeme Colgan Dinner Speech

Conference Programme

Special Issues of the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations:
Vol 39 No 2 2014
Vol 39 No 3 2014


First Biennial Conference (2 December 2011, Victoria University of Wellington)

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Andrew Stewart, Adelaide University
Professor Richard Johnson, Griffiths University

Conference Programme

Special Issue of the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations:
Vol 37 No 1 2012