Annual Labour Law Conference opens this week

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The conference, themed ‘The 4th Industrial Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities,’ will be opened by Judge Basheer Waglay, Judge President of the Labour Appeal Court and The Labour Court of South Africa and will be attended by labour law and human resource professionals, trade unionists and members of the public service.

Conference Chair Professor Alan Rycroft of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town, says issues related to labour law and labour relations in South Africa are critical to the country’s economy and that incidents such as the Marikana massacre must never happen again.

A strike over wage increases at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana turned violent and led to the killing of 34 mineworkers.

Rycroft says the labour law conference will shed light on some of the most crucial matters in the field, including whistle blowing in the fight against corruption, the new NEDLAC code on collective bargaining and industrial action and employer responses to allegations of sexual harassment.

The keynote address will be delivered by Anne Marie Engtoft, Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Conference topics related specifically to the fourth industrial revolution include ‘The Gig economy – should Uber drivers and other service providers be employees?’, ‘Equity implications of the fourth industrial revolution’ and ‘How does South Africa prepare for the fourth industrial revolution – an International Labour Organization perspective?’

David Lewis, executive director of Corruption Watch, will address delegates on corruption, good governance and the economy.

The conference will take place on 16 and 17 August and is supported by the Institute of Development and Labour Law at the University of Cape Town, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and the School of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.