Freedom of Association: the Challenges with Organising and Registration’ with Siza Milambo (a member of the Simunye Workers Forum) (26 June 2024)

Organising in the Platform Economy: Developments in the e-Hailing Sector of South Africa with Melithemba Mnguni, Sibongiseni Shange, Omar Parker and Shane Choshane (29 November 2023)

E8. ‘Organising in the Platform Economy: Perspectives from Kenya and Nigeria’ with Adedamola Adeniran, Bill Mutoro and Ruth Castel-Branco (25th October 2023)

This episode examines key legal developments in employment equity and labour law in South Africa. Meko Magida, Executive Director of Human Resources at the University of the Western Cape, discusses his role in implementing the Employment Equity Act and establishing the Commission for Employment Equity. Shamima Gaibie, Senior Director at Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Inc., and Roger Ronnie, researcher and former trade unionist, provide additional perspectives. The discussion is facilitated by Paul Benjamin, Extraordinary Professor at UWC's Faculty of Law, focusing on affirmative action, legal reform, and the future of work.

Speaker: Adelle Blackett - Prof. of Law at McGill University, Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law and Development, Centrow Associate. Prof. Blackett served as the lead International Labour Organization (ILO) expert in a treaty-making process for Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers, and preparing a draft Haitian labour code. Respondent: Kelebogile Khounou – Researcher: Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI). Ms Khounou’s Masters research was based on domestic workers’ engagement with everyday life, their social networks and the building of their political subjectivities. Ms Khounou has worked intensely on the campaign for inclusion of domestic workers under COIDA.

Speaker: Prof Edoardo Ales, Professor of Labour Law and Industrial Relations, University of Naples and Extraordinary Professor, UWC ‘ILO standards and the right to collective bargaining for self-employed workers in the EU: lessons for South Africa?’ Respondent: Mario Jacobs, Researcher and Programme Convenor Labour, Development and Governance Research Unit (LDG), University of Cape Town and former trade union official with more than 20 years’ experience

Prof Miriam Cherry obtained her doctorate at Harvard Law School after which she clerked for Justice Roderick Ireland of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and then for Judge Gerald Heaney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In 2001, she joined the Boston law firm of Foley Hoag LLP, where she practiced corporate law with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, securities compliance filings, venture capital, and private debt financing. She was also associated with the firm of Berman, DeValerio & Pease, where she took part in litigating several accounting fraud cases including those against former telecom giant WorldCom and Symbol Technologies, which resulted in a $139 million settlement. Academically, Professor Cherry has been on the faculty or visited at a number of law schools, including the University of Georgia, University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law, and Cumberland School of Law. In 2008, she was elected a member of the American Law Institute. Currently she is Co-Director of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law and Associate Dean for Research and Engagement at St Louis University School of Law. Her research is interdisciplinary, focusing on the intersection of technology and globalisation with business, contract, and employment law topics. In her recent work, she analyses crowdfunding, markets for corporate social responsibility, virtual work, and social entrepreneurship. Her publications have appeared in the North western Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Washington Law Review, Illinois Law Review, Georgia Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Maryland Law Review, and the Tulane Law Review, among others.