Workers’ rights are in free fall across every continent, according to the 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index, with Europe and the Americas recording their worst scores since the Index began in 2014. Just seven countries now have the top rating of 1 for their respect for workers’ rights, compared with 51, or one in three, rated 5 and 5+. 

If the current trend continues, no countries will hold a rating of 1 within the next ten years.

Key findings include:

• Three out of five global regions saw conditions worsen; the Americas (3.68) and Europe (2.78) hit their worst scores on record. Europe continued a rapid deterioration from 1.84 in 2014 – the biggest decline seen in any region worldwide over the past 10 years.
• Only seven out of the 151 countries surveyed (fewer than 5%) earned a top-tier rating of 1 – down from 18 a decade ago.
• The 10 worst countries for workers are: Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria (NEW), the Philippines, Tunisia, and Türkiye.
• The worst region in the world for working people is the Middle East and North Africa, with an average rating of 68.
• Deaths of trade unionists were recorded in Cameroon, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, and South Africa.
• 87% of countries violated the right to strike; 80% violated the right to collective bargaining.
• Workers’ access to justice was restricted in 72% of countries, the worst level ever recorded.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “The 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index exposes the outcomes of the betrayal of the system built after World War Two, founded on democracy, trade union rights and justice. Governments have collaborated in decades of deregulation, neoliberalism, and neglect, leading to the collapse of workers’ rights. This has disenfranchised millions and paved the way for extremism, authoritarianism and the billionaire coup against democracy that now threatens democracy itself.

“If this pace of decline continues, in ten years there will be no country left in the world with the highest rating for its respect for workers’ rights. This is a global scandal, but it is not unavoidable; it is a deliberate decision that can be reversed.

“That is why the ITUC is exposing the coordinated attack by the ultra-rich and their political allies to rig economies against working people. It is not inevitable that workers’ rights will worsen in the 2026 Rights Index.

“Together, through strong, independent unions and a democracy that delivers for all, we can reclaim power, rebuild economies that serve people, not corporations, and demand international institutions that are accountable to those they were created to protect. Our movement is fighting every day for this future — and next year’s Index must show the beginning of real change.”

Other key findings:

• In 12 countries, conditions have deteriorated so severely, due to conflict and the corresponding collapse of the rule of law, that they now hold the lowest-possible rating of 5+. These countries are Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Haiti, Libya, Myanmar, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen.
• Only three countries have seen their rating improve in 2025: Australia (2), Mexico (3) and Oman (3).
• Seven countries have worse ratings: Argentina (4), Costa Rica (4), Georgia (4), Italy (2), Mauritania (5), Niger (4), Panama (4).
• 75% of countries excluded workers from the right to establish or join a trade union.
• 74% of countries impeded the registration of unions.
• 45% of countries restricted free speech and assembly.
• Workers were arrested and detained in 71 countries.
• Workers experienced violence in 40 countries.

The 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index is being released on 2 June to coincide with the start of the International Labour Conference (ILC) at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland: the world’s parliament for work. ITUC priorities at the ILC include tackling rights violations through the Committee on the Application of Standards and the implementation of Article 33 measures concerning Myanmar, advancing protections in the platform economy, addressing biological hazards at work, and promoting innovative pathways to formalising informal work. The violations exposed in the 2025 Index will contribute this work.

The ILC will include a special session on the 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index at 13:30 CEST on 10 June that will include testimonies from trade union representatives from some of the worst countries in the world for working people, as well as remarks from Luc Triangle, ITUC General Secretary, and Paapa Danquah, ITUC Legal Director. 

The ITUC Global Rights Index is a comprehensive review of workers’ rights in law ranking 151 countries against a list of 97 indicators derived from ILO Conventions and jurisprudence, and as such is the only database of its kind. Violations are recorded each year from April to March.

https://www.ituc-csi.org