Workers facing 'systemic violations' of rights worldwide: report

PARIS: Repression of workers’ rights has deepened around the globe, with even “stable” countries like France and the United States now seeing eroded labour protections, the world’s largest trade union organisation said Monday.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said 72 percent of 151 countries surveyed denied workers access to justice, with authorities in about 50 percent of countries arresting or detaining workers last year.

“The crisis for workers’ rights is no longer confined to the margins — it is now at the heart of democracies,” the confederation’s general secretary Luc Triangle said in a statement presenting its annual rights index for 2026.

It found that the right to strike was violated in 87 percent of countries, the same level as in the previous two years, with the right to collective bargaining restricted in 80 percent.

The United States in particular was placed on the ITUC watch list with a rating of four for “systemic violations of rights”, while France’s rating fell to three from two, despite the country’s historically robust union presence.

Argentina and Panama were added to its 10 worst countries for workers’ rights, joining Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tunisia and Turkey.

“Europe and the Americas record their worst average ratings since the index began in 2014,” the report said, noting an increased use of digital surveillance to monitor and intimidate employees.

It denounced a “billionaire coup” with the support of far-right and authoritarian leaders to roll back rights in order to maximise profits. It said fewer countries were consulting with labour organisations before enacting new labour laws.

“Governments are failing to protect working people, and in many cases are actively undermining them,” Triangle said, resulting in “a coordinated attack on democracy”.

The ITUC has compiled its annual index since 2014, ranking 151 countries on dozens of criteria based on International Labour Organisation conventions.