The University of Warwick's Employment Law Research Unit (ELRU) was established in 2002, and launched with an international colloquium followed by a dinner hosted by the Vice-Chancellor in London on 29 January of that year. Speakers at the colloquium included Rolf Birk (Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on Freedom of Association), Arturo Bronstein (Deputy Director, ILO), and Fernando Vasques (DG Employment, European Commission). The guest of honour at the dinner was Janet Gaymer (Chair of the Employment Tribunals Task Force).

Arturo Bronstein and Rolf Birk Fernando Vasques

On 8-9 February 2002, the ELRU then hosted a two-day seminar on "The Changing Face of European Labour Law and Social Policy" at the Warwick campus. The subjects covered during the course of that seminar (which have since been published by Kluwer Law International) included fundamental social rights in Europe, workers' participation developments, equal opportunities, and the health and safety of employees at work. Sadly, that occasion proved to be the last on which the group of international colleagues were to work together with their close friend Marco Biagi, who was shot dead by assassins' bullets in Bologna on 19 March 2002.

Colleagues at the Warwick Seminar "The Changing Face of European Labour Law and Social Policy", 9 February 2002

Alan Neal, Marco Biagi, Antoine Jacobs, Melanie Pine, Niklas Bruun, Jacques Rojot, Stein Evju

Roger Blanpain, Manfred Weiss

The Vice-Chancellor with Dong Yan (Warwick/Adecco Scholar), watched by (on left) Calum McCloed (Director, Great Britain-China Centre) and (on right) Jérôme Caille (CEO Adecco Group)

Meanwhile, the Unit's continuing work on the developing Chinese labour market and Labour Law in China has seen the establishment of the Warwick/Adecco Fellowship and the development of close working relations with colleagues in the People's Republic of China directed towards the establishment of a nationwide pilot scheme for a Labour Disputes Arbitration Court to handle the increasing volume of labour disputes arising in the context of the rapidly developing Chinese labour market.

Professor Neal with MOLSS officials Lu Yulin and Wang Li (both graduates of the Warwick Law School)

The Unit's other on-going activities in China include the provision of technical assistance to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MOLSS) in the context of drafting revisions to the PRC's Labour Contracts Law, and collaboration with leading labour market academics at the Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, where a joint technical seminar on labour relations was held in July 2005.