Report: Abuse of Workers’ Rights Reached Record Highs in 2022

Ndubuisi  Francis in Abuja

The abuse of workers’ rights reached its highest level worldwide in 2022, a new report published by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the world’s largest trade union federation, has revealed.

The ITUC Global Rights Index 2022, which ranked 148 countries by their respect for workers’ rights, revealed that only three countries worldwide saw their ratings improve in the latest ranking. 

They are El Salvador in Central America, Niger Republic in West Africa and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.

According to the ITUC,  the right to strike is increasingly criminalised globally,  stressing  that strikes are severely restricted or banned in 129 of the 148 countries covered in the report.

“Workers exercising their right to strike in these nations can be dismissed from their jobs instantly, and union leaders taking part in the strikes can be prosecuted.

“In some countries, industrial action is “brutally repressed,” the ITUC said.

It explained that the proportion of countries violating the right to strike has grown from 63 per cent in 2014 to 87 per cent in 2022.

Collective bargaining rights are also being eroded, the report said, noting that when unions negotiate with employers to improve pay and conditions for their worker members, this process is called collective bargaining, and is a fundamental right for all workers.

But there are “serious restrictions” to collective bargaining in 117 countries, the Global Rights Index 2022 said.

“Restrictions have been recorded in all regions and in both public and private sectors,” the ITUC noted.

This reflects a “concerted attempt by employers” – sometimes in partnership with governments – to curtail the rights of workers, the confederation added.

The ITUC Global Rights Index 2022 rated the Middle East and North Africa as the worst violators of workers’ rights globally.

While all workers have the right under international labour standards to set up or join a trade union, the report stated that 115 of the 148 countries the index covered deny this right to certain categories of workers.

These include migrant workers, domestic workers, temporary workers and some categories of public employees.

The proportion of countries violating this right grew from 58 per cent in 2014 to 77 per cent in 2022.

According to the ITUC, workers are also denied access to justice, and without access to justice, they cannot have their voice heard and assert their rights.

They have no access or reduced access to justice in 97 of 148 countries.

Trade union leaders are often detained and prosecuted on inflated charges, the ITUC said.

It stressed that trials are often not impartial, while also showing “disregard for due process”.

According to the report, in the Middle East and North Africa region which is ranked as the worst violator of workers’ rights, workers face systematic violations of their rights, or no guarantee of their rights at all.

Workers’ rights are also systematically violated in Asia-Pacific, the world’s second worst region for such rights. 

Violations in 2022 included “extreme police brutality” to repress strike action, the ITUC said.

It noted that in Africa and the Americas, there are ‘regular violations of workers’ rights.