Richard Spoor

Description

Richard Spoor is a South African activist and human rights attorney based in White River Mpumalanga who has more than 25 years of experience in complex litigation. A pioneer throughout the past 20 years in the fight for workers’ rights and safety, Spoor has become what The American Lawyer called the “bête noir” of the South Africa Mining Industry because of his unwavering commitment to holding mining companies accountable for their alleged ill treatment of workers, who are some of the country’s most underprivileged citizens.

Spoor focuses on the field of occupational health and safety. He has represented workers and trade unions in enquiries into some of the country’s worst industrial disasters in the chemical, construction, industrial and mining sectors. Over the last couple of decades, he has negotiated a number of pioneering settlements between employers and workers, or their dependents, in relation to occupational injuries and disease following major mining and industrial accidents and occupational disease epidemics.