The terms labour law, employment law, labour relations law and industrial relations law are all currently used. Do they all mean the same thing? It gets a bit confusing.

The International Labour Organisation seems to have adopted the term work rather than employment or labour. This is why GilesFiles uses the term work law.

Work law covers all statutory and common law aspects of the law concerning work, including:

  • employment, recruitment, retirement, pension funds, dismissals, fair labour practices;
  • restraint of trade, competition, arbitration, collective agreements, collective bargaining;
  • corporate governance, employment equity, affirmative action;
  • educators and teachers, security of tenure, evictions;
  • temporary employment services or labour brokers, immigration, work permits;
  • promotion of access to information, promotion of administrative justice, protected disclosures, public service, privacy;
  • skills development, workplace forums; and
  • remedies for unfair dismissal and unfair labour practices, including reinstatement, compensation and damages.