Legal Seminar Series

Lieve Verboven is the Director of the International Labour Organization’s Office for the European Union and the Benelux countries.

Ms Verboven has built international and national expertise of over 20 years in social dialogue, conflict resolution and collective bargaining. Before joining the ILO Office in Brussels, Ms Verboven worked as a Federal Labour Mediator at the Belgian Federal Public Service for Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue chairing joint committees at sectoral level between representative worker’s and employer’s organisations and acting as conciliator in collective labour disputes.

She previously joined the ILO as a Social Dialogue Expert in Senegal, focussing her efforts on promoting social dialogue in French-speaking African countries. She has also gained working experience in Mediation and Labour Relations in Alberta, Canada.

Lieve holds a Master of Law from the Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven, Belgium) and a specialized Master of European Law from the Free University of Brussels (ULB, Belgium).

Before being elected as Confederal Secretary at the ETUC’s May 2019 Congress, Ludovic Voet was national youth leader of the Belgian CSC union from July 2015. As President of Young CSC, he was responsible for the development of young people’s action within the union organisations (federations and local unions), external representation, organising, affiliation and lobbying.

Ludovic’s responsibilities at the ETUC cover sustainable development and climate change, migration, youth policy, non-standard work and the platform economy, education and training, and equality and non-discrimination, plus organising.

His trade union activity started as a student at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). From 2006 to 2011 he was active in the Federation of Francophone Students (FEF), helping to mobilise other students to take collective action. He took part in the campaigns that led to a reduction in higher education costs in the French part of Belgium in 2010. He also supported the student campaign against the French government’s proposed law to enable employers to fire young workers – a proposal which was subsequently withdrawn.

In 2011, completing his studies, Ludovic participated in the major trade union demonstration in opposition to Belgian government austerity policies, and resolved to make a career in defending workers’ rights. In December 2012 he was appointed as local youth leader for the CSC Mons-La Louvière area.

Ms. Katerine Landuyt has worked at the ILO since 1995 in the field of ​​international labour standards, gender equality and non-discrimination, and rights of migrant workers

Prior to joining the Labour Migration Branch (MIGRANT) in 2018, she worked for several years within the Department of International Labour Standards (NORMES). Before joining NORMES, Ms. Landuyt was responsible for managing a project on trafficking of women and children in the Mekong region and coordinated the production of an Information guide on discrimination and exploitation of women migrant workers, within the Gender Promotion Programme. Before joining the ILO HQ in Geneva, Ms. Landuyt worked in the ILO Multidisciplinary Advisory Team for South East Asia and the Pacific, based in Manila.

As a Legal Specialist in Labour Migration Policy in MIGRANT, Ms. Landuyt provides strategic advice and technical support to ILO constituents and organizes trainings on gender and migration, labour standards, legal frameworks governing labour migration or bilateral agreements.  She is also the focal point for the Arab States. Ms. Landuyt has serviced the ILO supervisory bodies, including at the annual International Labour Conference, and provided policy and technical advice on ILO standards relating to non-discrimination and equality, and migrant workers.

As an ILO official, Ms. Landuyt manages project activities and produces research and learning tools on ILO standards, equality and non-discrimination, workers’ rights of migrants, including those in an irregular situation, and the migrant pay gap, among others. Ms. Landuyt works in close collaboration with the United Nations human rights mechanisms.

Since October 2016 Adam Pokorny has been head of the unit “Labour Law” in Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission.

His unit is responsible for the implementation of some twenty EU Directives covering individual and collective rights, notably concerning working time, written statement, fixed-term and part-time work, collective redundancies, information and consultation of workers, transfer of undertakings, European Works Councils, transparent and predictable working conditions.

In previous postings in the European Commission he was responsible for the implementation of the European Social Fund and the European Semester policy analysis process for Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia (2012-16), for policy cooperation and funding programmes (Comenius, eTwinning) in the field of school education (2007-12), and on education policy coordination and negotiation of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme (2001-07).

Before entering the European Commission he worked in the UK civil service in the Department for Education (1990-2001).

Vera is a Lecturer in Labour Law at the University of Glasgow since 2018. Before joining Glasgow, she was a Research Fellow at Goethe University in Frankfurt and before that, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain.

Vera holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute in Florence, where she also received the 2017 Mauro Cappelletti prize for the best thesis in comparative law. Since 2019, Vera is a member of the European Equality Law Network on gender equality.

Vera’s work focuses on the intersection of migration and labour law in a European and comparative law perspective. Her working languages are Greek, English, Spanish and Italian.

Publications (selected)

Pavlou, V. (2021) Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of Vulnerability, Hart Publishing, ISBN 9781509942374 (In Press)

Pavlou, V. (2020) Whose equality? Paid domestic work and EU gender equality law European Equality Law Review, 2020(1), pp. 36-46.

Pavlou, V. (2018) Where to look for change? A critique of the use of modern slavery and trafficking frameworks in the fight against migrant domestic workers’ vulnerability European Journal of Migration and Law, 20(1), pp. 83-107.

Pavlou, V. (2018) Percorso di lettura: la dottrina femminista del diritto del lavoro Giornale del diritto del lavoro e di relazioni industriali, 159(3), pp. 709-714.

Pavlou, V. (2016) Migrant domestic labour and models of immigration and employment law regulation: a comparative perspective of Cyprus and Spain Revista de Investigaciones Feministas, 7(1), pp. 149-168.

Pavlou, V. (2016) Domestic work in EU law: the relevance of EU employment law in challenging domestic workers’ vulnerability, European Law Review, 41(3), pp. 379-398.

Lucila Granada is CEO of Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), a UK-based research and policy organisation dedicated to end labour exploitation by transforming the systems, structures and policies that create risk for workers. Prior to this role, Lucila served as the director of the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS), a front-line, ‘led by and for’ feminist organisation directly supporting 5,000 women every year. Lucila also founded CLAUK, a coalition of Latin American organisations campaigning for ethnic recognition, improved access to services and labour rights. She is a board member of the global anti-trafficking network GAATW and holds a PhD on migration, language and ethnic identity from Aston University.

Jan Knockaert is since 2010 coordinator of FAIRWORK Belgium. Where he assists undocumented migrants in claiming their labour rights with a focus on wage theft and labour accidents. On the bases of the reality of undocumented migrant workers he is responsible for the advocacy work to make labour rights for undocumented migrants a reality. He is also member of the board of PICUM.

Next to the earlier mentioned work FAIRWORK Belgium has an empowerment project for undocumented migrant domestic workers and au pairs. To make them aware of their labour rights and assist them in claiming them but also to give them the opportunity to inform en empower themselves.

Susanne Kimm is a political scientist and lawyer and works as a legal advisor with UNDOK – drop-in center for undocumented workers.

Laura Huizar joined the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in 2015 and currently is NELP’s Immigrant Worker Justice Program Director.

Previously, Laura supported NELP’s efforts to create a good jobs economy by providing legal and technical assistance to local, state, and national campaigns to raise the minimum wage and to enforce federal overtime regulations and other protections. Her work has included supporting campaigns around the country defending local policies from state preemption, expanding local authority to adopt pro-worker policies, and contributing to research on the abuse of preemption. In her previous role as Legal Director of the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) Joint Project with NELP, Laura oversaw and coordinated the LSSC’s legal work focused on deploying proactive legal strategies to help communities resist and reverse state preemption laws.

Laura’s background includes a variety of social and economic justice-related work, including an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, where she represented immigrant workers in low-wage jobs in litigation and assisted community groups seeking policy change. As a Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, Laura supported litigation and conducted legal research related to debtors’ prisons, the school-to-prison pipeline, and other major sources of racial injustice in the U.S. Before attending law school, Laura worked for JUNTA for Progressive Action in New Haven, Connecticut, focusing on local economic development and immigrant worker advocacy.

Valued for her expertise on living and minimum wage and immigrant worker issues, Laura has been quoted by Bloomberg, New Republic, CBS News, Newsweek, and more. Laura is admitted to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia.

Dr Laurie Berg is Associate Professor in the Law Faculty at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, and Co-Director of the Migrant Worker Justice Initiative. Over the past decade she has led numerous national and global research teams on migrant workers’ access to justice, responsibilities of business, technology for migrant empowerment, migrants’ housing rights and most recently, the impact of COVID-19 on temporary migrants. She is the author of the first monograph on temporary labour migration in Australia: Migrant Rights at Work: Law’s Precariousness at the Intersection of Immigration and Labour published by Routledge in 2016.

Borislav Gerasimov is the Communications and Advocacy Coordinator at the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women and the Editor of the Anti-Trafficking Review. He holds a degree in English Philology from Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, and has previously worked at women’s rights and anti-trafficking organisations in Bulgaria and the Netherlands. He has also been involved in various capacities in the work of organisations supporting Roma youth, LGBTI people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and sex workers.

Law & Policy.

Ludovica Banfi is a Project Manager in Social Research at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency where she focuses mainly on migration and asylum. Her areas of expertise with respect to the FRA’s work include: severe labour exploitation; migrant and refugee integration; health and migration; multiple discrimination; and social research methods. She has managed several projects in areas such as the rights of long-term residents in the EU; migration and domestic work, healthcare of migrants, multiple discrimination and transnationalism in the context of migration in the EU and neighbouring countries. She holds a PhD in sociology and has previously worked as a research fellow at the University of Bologna, the University of Trento and at Middlesex University.

Law & Policy.

Dr. Konstantina Michopoulou is an Attorney at Supreme Courts and a member of the Athens Bar Association. Since 2004, she has been handling many cases in the fields of Public & Administrative Law and Human Rights. She has filed numerous Reports, Applications for annulment and Appeals against different state actors, before various Administrative Courts, Council of State and Court of Auditors, challenging the constitutionality or the legality of several state or administrative actions or inactions. Over the last 15 years, she’s been challenging the constitutionality of legislation violating labour rights and fighting for the application of European human rights law within the national legal order. Inter alia, she was involved in many cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and currently collaborates with both national and European authorities on the implementation procedure of its various Court judgements. In parallel, she is a Senior Expert Legal Consultant for various institutions and organisations, offering Legal Advice on decision-making process, litigation and strategic planning. Recently she’s been appointed as the Head Attorney of the Judicial Department at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences of Athens, Greece.
As a strong believer of the benefits deriving from the combination of both the Law practice and academic research, Dr. Michopoulou is currently a Teaching Associate on the module of Human Rights at Hellenic Open University and a Module Tutor on Leadership and Ethical Decision Making in the University of London’s Global MBA programme. She holds an LLB degree in Law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), a PgC in International Criminal Justice, a PgD in International Dispute Resolution and an LLM in Public International Law, all of them from the University of London. Keen on the field of human rights, she obtained her PhD in Public Law and Human Rights having completed a thesis entitled “The Positive Obligations of the State Organs. The European Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence and the Greek Constitution” with Magna Cum Laude at the Panteion University of Athens, Greece. Dr Michopoulou has written many articles related to the defense of fundamental rights and their procedural safeguards; and participated in various colloquiums, conferences, and parliamentary committees around the world, speaking and delivering seminars on the field of European Human Rights Law & Policy.

Ioana is the Networks Coordinator at Fair Trials, a civil society organization whose mission is to advance the global fight for fairness, justice and equality in criminal justice. She works primarily on discrimination and racism in Europe’s criminal legal systems, apparent also in the securitisation of migration and criminalisation of solidarity.

Giulia Laganà leads the analysis and advocacy on EU policies on migration and labour rights at the Open Society European Policy Institute, the EU branch of the Open Society Foundations, since 2016. After focusing on asylum reform and the externalisation of EU migration management, since 2018 Laganà has worked mainly on migrant workers’ rights and sectorial policies where migrant labour is widespread, like agri-food.

A migration expert with over 15 years of experience, Laganà was a senior adviser on migration, human rights, EU and international affairs to the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome from 2013 to 2016. Previously, she spent four years with the United Nations, working for UNHCR and UNDP in Italy and Brussels, respectively. While she was with the United Nations Development Programme, Laganà oversaw migration and development projects in Western and North Africa. Her work experience also includes stints with NGOs such as SOLIDAR and with the European Commission. Laganà graduated with a First from Cambridge University in social anthropology and holds an MA in human rights and humanitarian aid from the University of Bologna. She has since specialised in international refugee law and EU asylum and migration law. An Italian national, Laganà is bilingual in English and Italian and speaks French.

Tim Tregenza is Senior Network Manager at the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU OSHA). EU OSHA is the European information agency for occupational safety and health and is located in Bilbao, Spain. In his current post he is responsible for the international relations of the Agency, its network of national focal points, and relations with the Senior Labour Inspectors Committee (SLIC) of the European Commission. Before taking up his current post, he was a project manager in the Agency, working on the provision of practical solutions to occupational safety and health issues. He started his career as a labour inspector in the United Kingdom.

Roxanne joined FAIRWORK Belgium in 2019 where she is currently working as a legal officer. She assists undocumented migrants in enforcing their labour rights in court and is in particular responsible for the follow up of all cases related to labour accidents of undocumented migrants. Previously she did research on Corporate Social Responsibility and the labour rights of undocumented migrant workers.

Silvia Borelli is a Labour Law Associate Professor of University of Ferrara (Italy). Silvia Borelli belongs to the Editorial Committees of Lavoro e Diritto and of Rivista giuridica del lavoro (Journal members of the International Association of Labour Law Journals) and takes part in the Réseau académique sur la charte sociale européenne et les droits sociaux. She collaborates with the European Secretariat of the Italian General Confederation of Labour and, since 2020, has been included in the ETUC Taskforce on Fair Mobility. She represents ETUC in the Fit for Future Platform of the European Commission.

During her career, she has taken part to several national and European researches on antidiscrimination law, migrant workers, quality of employment, networks of enterprises, posting of workers and transnational labour law. In 2019-2021, she participated to the ETUC project on Securing Workers Rights in subcontracting chains. Silvia Borelli’s full CV and list of publications are available here.

Emily joined ASOS in 2016 where she is currently an Ethical Trade Partner. She currently leads on ASOS’ modern slavery strategy and work in Mauritius, where she is working to create a sustainable solution to the issues faced by migrant workers in Mauritius. Other key areas of her work include the management of ASOS’ ethical audit programme in Europe and leading on reporting and communications for her team. She also recently became an ambassador for Justice in Fashion, and is working to engage the wider community about the complexities of fashion and supply chains, and the work being done around the globe to build it back better.