Bio

Octavio Canton has practiced labor law from the beginning of his professional career. He is an expert in advising on both individual and collective labor matters. He assists companies in the definition and implementation of their labor structure, in outsourcing relationships, in labor reengineering processes, in commercial transactions such as restructurings, mergers, acquisitions, hiring and termination of personnel, negotiation of individual and collective bargaining agreements, design, review and benefit plans and retirement plans. Octavio has deep experience in all matters related to labor law. He has advised national and foreign companies, both public and private, in all branches of industry, commerce and services, assisting them in complex transactions and in the resolution of individual and collective conflicts and litigation. He has advised different non-governmental organization such as Sin Fronteras, UNICEF, Save the Children, and Unete. He has participated as expert in social rights in the Human Rights Committee of the Mexico City, and he has worked actively as a trainer in indigenous communities, mainly in Chiapas, Mexico. Octavio holds a law degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana. In 2001, he completed a postgraduate degree from the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (Spain) on Labor Relations, Employment and Social Protection in the Globalization. Recently he obtained the Labor Relations and Arbitration professional certificate at Cornell University. From March 2001 to February 2002, he was a special advisor to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and from 2002 to 2005, he was visiting professor in the Human and Social Rights and International Studies Programs’ of the University of Chicago. He founded the first Human Rights master program in Latin America at the Universidad Iberoamericana together with professor Santiago Corcuera. He has been a professor of Labor Law at the undergraduate level and of the Interdisciplinary Seminar on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Master’s Degree in Human Rights at the Universidad Iberoamericana. Additionally, he has PhD studies in Fundamental Rights from the Instituto de Derechos Humanos Bartolomé de las Casas of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He has collaborated with the Mexican Academy of Labor Procedural Law and the Latin American Academy of Labor Procedural Law. Octavio was invited, as a specialist in labor law, to participate in the collective work Derechos Humanos en la Constitución: Comentarios de Jurisprudencia Constitucional e Interamericana, published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation. He has published several articles on social law. He is coordinator and co-author of the book Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, Ensayos y Materiales, and author of the book Igualdad y Derechos, both published by Porrúa.