The State of Global Workers’ Rights

The 10 worst countries for workers in 2023 were Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Guatemala, Myanmar, Tunisia, the Philippines and Turkey, according to the latest report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on the Global State of Workers’ Rights. The ITUC ranked 149 countries based on the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike, giving each nation a score of 1-5+, where 1=sporadic violations of rights and 5+=no guarantee of rights due to breakdown of the rule of law.

Last year, the Middle East and North Africa received the worst score of the regions on the Global Rights Index with an average of 4.53. Analysts write that while Qatar has seen progress, this low score is partly due to the ongoing use of the kafala system in the Gulf countries, which continues to leave migrant workers open to severe human rights abuses. The MENA region was followed by the Asia-Pacific with 4.18, Africa with 3.84, the Americas with 3.52 and Europe with 2.56. Trade unionists and workers were murdered in eight countries in 2023. These include Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Guatemala, Peru and Sierra Leone.

As this infographic shows, only a few select countries received the green mark of approval - all of which are in Europe. The rest of the world shows a less hopeful picture, with 87 percent of countries having violated their workers’ right to strike in 2023, up from 63 percent in 2014.

Nine countries to see their ratings worsen in 2023 were the Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Haiti, Liberia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Togo and the United Kingdom. Whereas ratings pick up in Australia, Chile and Cote d’Ivoire.

The ITUC sends questionnaires to national unions around the world to report violations of workers’ rights. These are recorded each year from April to March and verified. Each country is then analyzed against 97 indicators based on ILO conventions and jurisprudence to create an index reflecting violations of workers’ rights in law and practice.