This year marks the 10th edition of the Global Rights Index, and the 2023 results provide a sobering confirmation of its founding purpose. Across both high-income and low income countries, as workers have felt the full force of a cost-of-living crisis, governments have cracked down on their rights to collectively negotiate wage rises and take strike action against employer and government indifference to the impacts of spiralling inflation upon working people.
From Eswatini to Myanmar, Peru to France, Iran to Korea, workers’ demands to have their labour rights upheld have been ignored and their dissent has been met with increasingly brutal responses from state forces. As working people were forced to demand better pay by the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, 9 out of 10 countries violated their right to strike. As they sought representative structures to put their grievances to employers, 8 out of 10 countries violated their right to collective bargaining. With nearly half of the countries surveyed violating the right to civil liberties, the foundations and pillars of democracy are under attack. The link between workers’ rights being upheld and the strength of a democracy cannot be overstated. The erosion of one amounts to the degradation of the other. Our democracies are under attack.
In 2023, 87% of countries violated the right to strike. Working people in Canada, Togo, Iran, Cambodia, Belgium, and Spain faced criminal prosecution and dismissals following their decision to strike. In South Korea, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) filed a KRW 47 billion (US$ 35.3 million) damage claim suit against leaders of the Korea Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), for alleged financial losses incurred due to strike action. The right to free speech and assembly was restricted in 42% of countries, with protesting working people facing police brutality. In France, workers’ unions have held mass demonstrations against a controversial and undemocratic decision to raise the national retirement age. Their lawful protests have been met with vicious police beatings, indiscriminate arrests and tear gas attacks by the police and security forces. Across the world in Iran, more than 230 teachers were arrested for taking part in 2022’s national May Day demonstrations, with armed security forces storming groups and beating and arresting participants. 79% of countries violated the right to collective bargaining. Companies refused to comply with collective agreements, rejected established trade unions and, in many cases, carried out negotiations with ‘yellow unions’ – often set up by employers to bypass genuine talks with representative workers’ unions. Workers in the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have seen their rights to collective bargaining severely reduced. 77% of countries excluded working people from the right to establish or join a trade union. Migrant workers, domestic workers, temporary workers, and those in the informal economy continued to be denied the right to freedom of association, as did platform workers and those in Special Economic Zones where labour laws are removed specifically to entice overseas investment. Workers in Burundi, Haiti, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were excluded from union representation.
73% of countries impeded the registration of unions. Government legislation hampered, restricted or removed the rights of workers to register their representative bodies in Belarus, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Central African Republic and Canada.
Workers were arrested and detained in 69 countries in 2023. Prominent trade union leaders from Myanmar, Hong Kong, Dominican Republic, India and Turkey were arrested and detained often under spurious charges. The targeting of union representatives has long been a strategy of repressive regimes keen to deter dissent through intimidation. In 65% of countries working people had no or restricted access to justice. Trade union leaders and workers’ rights advocates in Zimbabwe, Colombia, China and Kazakhstan were often detained and prosecuted on trumped-up charges, and their trials were often beset by a disregard for due process and a lack of impartiality. The 10 worst countries for workers in 2023 are: Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Guatemala, Myanmar, Tunisia, the Philippines and Turkey. Ecuador and Tunisia are new entries in 2023. In Ecuador mass protests calling for democracy and collective rights, organised by Indigenous peoples’ organisations and trade unions, have been brutally repressed resulting in arrests, injuries and killings. In Tunisia, President Kais Saied has continued to tighten his hold on power, undermining workers’ civil liberties and democratic institutions. Parliament was dissolved in 2021 and a new constitution adopted in 2022 without consultation with political parties or social partners.
Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Haiti, Liberia, Montenegro, Namibia, North Macedonia, Togo and the United Kingdom all saw their ratings worsen in 2023. Three countries where ratings improved are Australia, Chile and Cote d’Ivoire.
Workers experienced violence in 44 countries, including Bangladesh, the Philippines and Lebanon. The Asia-Pacific region saw another lamentable jump in the incidence of violence against working people from 43% of countries in 2022 to 48% in 2023 and the Middle East North Africa region also experienced a significant rise from 42% in 2022 to 53% in 2023. Trade unionists and workers were murdered in eight countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Guatemala, Peru and Sierra Leone.
The ITUC Global Rights Index depicts the world’s worst countries for workers by rating countries on a scale from 1 to 5+ on the degree of respect for workers’ rights. Violations are recorded each year from April to March. The annual 2023 Global Rights Index with searchable data can be found at www.globalrightsindex.org. Information on violations of workers’ rights in countries is published throughout the year in the ITUC Survey found at survey.ituc-csi.org.