Arrests, violence, digital surveillance: workers’ rights around the world are deteriorating, including in “major democracies”, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) warned on Monday. It is a “sign that the crisis has become systemic”.
“Once considered stable, countries like the United States and France are now contributing to a global upsurge in repression, exposing the systemic attack on democracy and rights at work,” warns the organization in the thirteenth edition of its ITUC Rights Index in the world.
Thus, “the United States joins the list of countries to watch as attacks on workers’ freedoms accelerate the erosion of democracy.” In question, “restrictions on collective bargaining and the use of force against workers”.
As for France, it is experiencing “its worst ranking, a sign of a prolonged decline in workers’ rights, notably characterized by a repression of union activists and restrictions imposed on demonstrations”.
“A coordinated attack”
Generally speaking, the number of countries which deny workers access to justice, place them in detention or resort to violence, attacks on freedom of expression or assembly, is increasing around the world, according to this survey.
“The 2026 edition of the ITUC Global Rights Index reveals that the workers’ rights crisis is no longer limited to a few marginal cases. It is now at the very heart of democracies,” commented Luc Triangle, ITUC General Secretary.
He thus denounces “a coordinated attack on democracy, a coup d’état by billionaires, supported by political leaders; workers are stripped of their rights and reduced to silence, and economies are manipulated for the benefit of a handful of powerful people”.
The ITUC, which has been carrying out this study since 2014, ranks 151 countries on the basis of 97 indicators based on conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and its case law.
The scores of European and American countries “reached their worst level since the first edition of the index in 2014, a sign that the crisis has become systemic”. Furthermore, “the rise of the extreme right in Europe is increasingly reflected in hostility towards unions and their members”.
Switzerland poorly ranked
Other countries whose situation is deteriorating include Argentina, now among the “worst countries in the world for workers, after a spectacular drop in its ranking […] in just two years, one of the sharpest declines ever recorded in the index.
Panama also enters the list of ten worst countries in the world for workers’ rights, with Belarus, Egypt, Ecuador, Eswatini, Burma, Nigeria, Tunisia and Turkey.
Eight countries, on the other hand, are among the “good students”, where the ITUC has only observed “sporadic violations of union rights”. All are in Europe (Germany, Denmark, Iceland), except Uruguay.
Switzerland is classified with France in the category of countries where workers suffer regular violations of their rights.
This article has been automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
