On 5 September 2017, Professor Manfred Weiss from the Goethe University, Frankfurt, presented a lecture for the Centre for Insolvency, Labour and Company Law (CILC) and the Department of Mercantile Law on the Hatfield campus of the University of Pretoria. The title of the lecture was “International Developments in Labour Law: The Past, the Present and the Future”.

Prof Weiss highlighted that the future of labour law has significant social ramifications internationally and in South Africa. South Africa is plagued by high unemployment; trade union decline and fragmentation; and informalisation of standard forms of work.

Prof Manfred Weiss is a distinguished academic, who has presented lectures at many universities worldwide, and was part of the panel of specialists tasked by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to assist South Africa in the formulation of its current Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995.

In his lecture, Prof Weiss emphasised the need to further improve the regulatory framework of the ILO in the wake of an ever increasing globalised world of work. The discussion highlighted the lack of the binding effect of most ILO legal instruments and the tame “naming and shaming” sanction. Prof Manfred Weiss expressed concern over such legal challenges as a factor that might result in the exploitation of workers in jurisdictions with poor regulatory frameworks. This, in turn, undermines hard-won international labour standards.

However, all is not doom and gloom. Prof Manfred Weiss applauded the influential standard setting role of the ILO and its supervisory technical teams that continue to assist countries to attain international labour standards and realise the goals of the Decent Work Agenda. Prof Weiss concluded that the future of labour law lies in cooperation between employers, employees and governments to ensure social justice at both domestic and international levels.