Photo of Professor Lydia Hayes

Professor Lydia Hayes

Professor of Labour Rights Law

About

Personal Statement

As a professor of labour rights, I study working people’s law – an area of law that is intrinsically connected to economic well-being, democratic participation, politics, social citizenship, and (perhaps surprisingly) public health. Terms and conditions of employment have a strong influence over public health factors such as life expectancy, mental illness, physical disability, risk of non-communicable diseases, and on the potential to enjoy our best possible health as individuals and across society. I am currently working with food banks and food pantries across Liverpool to build knowledge about how labour rights could better protect people from food insecurity. In my view, labour rights should be reinvigorated and redesigned for the purposes of protecting public health and Im building evidence about how that might be achieved and why.

Prior to joining Liverpool, I was head of school at Kent Law School and a Principal Investigator for Wellcome Trust. I have won awards for research excellence from the Socio-legal Studies Association (SLSA), Society of Legal Scholars (SLS), University of Bristol and Oxford University Press. I have been a visiting scholar at RMIT, Melbourne and was awarded the first Journal of Law and Society Research Fellowship 2013-2016. I have previously worked at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, at the Transport and General Workers Union, at University of Bristol and at Cardiff University. I am a member of the Berkeley Centre for Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and a board member of the Institute of Employment Rights. My research has been funded by Leverhulme/British Academy, Wellcome Trust, ILO, Welsh Government, Journal of Law and Society, Wales TUC, UNISON Scotland, UNISON North West, GMB, All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Care, Oxfam UK, European Commission.