Fifth Biennial Conference Registration and Information

Labour Law in 2019 – continuity, change and emerging challenges

15 and 16 November 2019

Victoria University Wellington Faculty of Law  (in conjunction with the School of Accounting and Commercial Law)

Rutherford House, 33 Bunny Street, Pipitea, Wellington.

Conference theme and abstracts

The conference theme of continuity, change and emerging challenges encompasses issues such as engaging with the United Nations Development Agenda and the role of the International Labour Organization; re-shaping the protective function of labour law; challenges for the corporate sector including its response to pay equity, sexual harassment and work family regulation; and access to justice.

The organisers welcome papers from academics, practitioners and students. Some scholarships will be available for New Zealand based postgraduate students to attend the conference thanks to the support of the University of Canterbury Centre for Commercial and Corporate Law.

Deadline for abstracts - 31 August 2019 by email to labourlawconference@vuw.ac.nz.

Conference registration is available here.

Keynote Speakers

The Society is delighted to host two outstanding keynote international speakers at the conference.

Professor Tonia Novitz is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses predominantly on labour law, international and EU trade and the protection of human rights. Tonia first studied law in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury and completed her D Phil at Oxford. Tonia has written extensively on labour law issues including International and European Protection of the Right to Strike (OUP, 2003), Human Rights at Work (with Colin Fenwick, Hart Publishing, 2010), The Role of Labour Standards in Development (with David Mangan, OUP, 2011) and Voices at Work (with Alan Bogg, OUP, 2014).

Dr Joanna Howe is an Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide. She completed her D Phil at Oxford and has worked as a consultant for the International Labour Organization. Joanna is an expert on the legal regulation of temporary labour migration. Her edited collection Temporary Labour Migration in the Global Era is the seminal international work on the regulation of transnational migration flows between countries on a temporary basis. Joanna has been the lead researcher on a number of projects involving migrant labour and insecure employment in Australia with her most recent report being Towards a Durable Future: Tackling Labour Challenges in the Australian Horticulture Industry (2019).

Other papers

In addition to out keynote speakers we have been offered papers on a variety of topics. The tentative programme includes papers on

·         Labour law issues relating to employer adoption of technological innovations

·         Accessorial liability in Australia and New Zealand

·         Private security laws and workplace investigations

·         Enforcement of employment standards

·         Evidentiary burden of proving workplace indirect sex discrimination

·         Labour law developments in South-East Asia

·         Remedies: Do low paid workers get short-changed?

·         Union Rights of entry in Australia and New Zealand

·         Modern slavery reporting

·         Employer action against employees for conduct occurring outside of the workplace

 

Travel to New Zealand

From 1 October 2019, New Zealand will be initiating a pre-travel Electronic Travel Authority requirement. This will apply to most travellers who aren’t required to get a visa before entering New Zealand (including travellers from visa waiver countries). Please note Australian citizens are exempt, but Australian permanent residents will need to hold an ETA. To find out more about this requirement please visit: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/what-we-do/our-strategies-and-projects/eta-new-requirements.

If you are travelling on a passport not from a visa waiver country you will require a visa, please visit:  https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/options/visit/explore-visitor-visa-options

Call for papers for Fifth Biennial Conference of the New Zealand Labour Law Society 15-16 November 2019

This is a call for abstracts for the New Zealand Labour Law Society’s fifth biennial conference on 15-16 November, co-ordinated by the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.

Conference theme: Labour Law in 2019- continuity, change and emerging challenges

We welcome abstracts (200 words or less) for papers and panel proposals on any topic related to labour law (broadly defined).

Possible sub-themes and topics include (but are not limited to):
• The international context. This could include papers engaging with the UN Development Agenda and the role of the ILO.
• Shaping Labour Regulation: resetting the standards. This sub-theme will focus on the protective function of labour law in relation to wage theft, exploitation of migrant labour and similar issues.
• Emerging challenges for the corporate sector. This sub-theme is aimed at prompting exploration of compliance and other challenges for business.
• Access to justice. This sub-theme might include papers exploring access to affordable representation and evaluation of New Zealand’s employment institutions.
• Equality, pay equity, law’s response to sexual harassment and work family regulation.
• Perspectives from other jurisdictions.
• Health, safety, wellbeing.
• Industry bargaining, sector specific issues e.g. film workers in New Zealand.

The organisers welcome papers from students who will have the option of presenting a paper either in the main conference or at a student session. Some scholarships will be available for New Zealand based postgraduate students to attend the conference thanks to the support of the Canterbury University Centre for Commercial and Corporate Law.

The deadline for abstracts is 1 August 2019.

Abstracts can be submitted by email to labourlawconference@vuw.ac.nz . They will be reviewed on a rolling basis with acceptance notified as soon as possible. There will be an opportunity for selected papers to be published in a Special Issue of the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations.

[if planning to come from outside New Zealand please note that NZ will be initiating a pre-travel ETA requirement from 1 October 2019 This will apply to travellers from visa waiver countries https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/media-centre/news-notifications/electronic-travel-authority . Australian citizens will be exempt, but Australian permanent residents will need to hold an Electronic Travel Authority]

Obituary: Chief Judge Tom Goddard (1937-2019)

Readers will have been saddened to learn of the death, on 14 March, of the former Chief Judge of the Employment Court, Tom Goddard. Tom, along with his family, arrived in New Zealand as a refugees in 1948. He graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with degrees in French and Law.

Following graduation he had a successful career in law specialising in defamation and labour law with Oakley Moran. Tom was appointed a judge of the then Labour Court in 1989 shortly thereafter becoming Chief Judge of the Court and in 1991 Chief Judge of the Employment Court, a position he held until his retirement in 2005. At his funeral his sons, who were somewhat apprehensive about Tom’s retirement, remarked that he took to it like a duck to water.

The early years of Tom’s term as Chief Judge were marked by controversy, particularly in the year’s following the enactment of the Employment Contracts Act. In the early years of that Act the Court, but particularly Tom, were subjected to an extraordinary and sustained level of personal and unjustifiable attacks. At the time these went largely unanswered by the traditional defenders of the judiciary. Tom and the other judges of the Court remained dignified and professional in the face of those attacks and in time Tom was to lead the Court into the somewhat more welcoming era of the Employment Relations Act.

Tom’s contribution to the development of labour law was immense and was marked not only by his intellect and rigorous analysis of the law but also by his compassion and humaneness. Tom’s funeral was, as is fitting, largely a family affair reflecting on Tom’s qualities that also made him an outstanding judge.

Tom’s legal achievements will be marked at a future special sitting of the Employment Court. The New Zealand Labour Law Society also plans to acknowledge and celebrate Tom's achievements at the next Biennial conference in November 2019.

Tom’s funeral was attended by many members of the legal profession, lawyers, judges and former judges of his own Court as well as the current Chief Justice, Dame Helen Winkelman and her predecessor, Dame Sian Elias.

Professor Gordon Anderson March 2019

Keynote speakers confirmed

The conference organising committee is pleased to announced that we have two excellent keynote speakers confirmed for the 2019 conference.

They are:

• Associate Professor Joanna Howe of Adelaide University
• Professor Tonia Novitz of Bristol University

Further information will follow soon.

Save the date: Fifth Biennial Labour Law Conference of the New Zealand Labour Law Society 15-16 November 2019

The New Zealand Labour Law Society’s fifth biennial conference will be held on Friday and Saturday 15-16th November 2019 at Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

The organisers look forward to welcoming a diverse group of Australasian and international academics, practitioners and others to this event.

The official call for papers and registration information will soon be available.

Notice of Annual Meeting

The New Zealand Labour Law Society AGM will be held at 5pm on Friday 26 October in Rutherford House, RH107, Victoria University of Wellington.

All financial members are entitled to attend the AGM and are eligible to serve on the committee. It is easy to become a financial member of the society. Membership dues are $25 per annum and should be deposited directly into the account of the Society.

New Zealand Labour Law Society Incorporated
ASB Bank Account Number 123066027891400

This year has been fairly quiet but next year we will be organising the Fifth Biennial New Zealand Labour Law Society conference which will be held at Victoria University of Wellington in November 2019. Membership dues help to fund the conference, pay for keynote speakers flights etc.

.

Ninth Biennial Australian Labour Law Society Conference

The dates for the 9th Biennial Australian Labour Law Society Conference have been announced.

It will be held at the Sofitel Broadbeach, on Queensland's Gold Coast, 9 -10 November 2018 and the Conference theme is 'Labour Law: new frontiers, new challenges'

Forthcoming Seminar: Transforming workplace relations – learning from the past and looking to the future - 1 March 2018

This seminar is based on the recently published book Transforming Workplace Relations in New Zealand 1976-2016 (Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2017). In this book a wide range of academic commentators reflect on the revolution in labour relations and speculate on the future of work relationships in a world again being challenged by newly evolving forms of work and employment.

The seminar brings together a number of the contributors to the book who will provide valuable insight on how we got to where we are in workplace relations, identify the challenges for the future in the current employment relations structure and create discussion as to what is needed for the future work environment.  It will be valuable to policy analysts, employment lawyers, employment relations and union strategists and everyone with an interest in this area.

The seminar will be held on Thursday 1 March 2018, 9am-1pm in Lecture Theatre 2, Rutherford House Pipitea Campus, Victoria University of Wellington 
For registration and further information  see here.

Fifth Biennial New Zealand Labour Law Society Conference- watch this space!

The Fifth Biennial New Zealand Labour Law Society Conference will be held at Victoria University of Wellington in November 2019.

More information coming soon...

The Fourth Biennial New Zealand Labour Law Society Conference was organised by Canterbury University in 2017.