Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

A new social contract

Sharan Burrow 24th June 2020

The 2020 ITUC Global Rights Index exposes the failings of the world’s economic model—a new social contract can help us build a new one.

social contract, global rights
Sharan Burrow

Some countries will use the Covid-19 crisis to accelerate their attacks on workers. But we can use the International Trade Union Confederation’s 2020 Global Rights Index to stop this, and then reverse it.

We must do this because the 2020 rights index exposes the breakdown of the social contract between governments, employers and workers, with violations of workers’ rights at a seven-year high. Democracy and freedom are under sustained attack.

Governments and employers have restricted the rights of working people through limiting collective bargaining, disrupting the right to strike and excluding workers from unions. This has been made worse by a rise in the number of countries that impede the registration of unions.

Extreme brutality

A staggering 85 per cent of countries have violated the right to strike. Strikes and demonstrations have been banned in Belarus, Guinea, Senegal and Togo and met extreme brutality in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. In Iran and Iraq, mass arrests have been made at protests.

Eighty per cent of countries have violated the right to collectively bargain. Egypt and Honduras have both moved to circumvent collective bargaining rights by putting up obstacles to union registration and dismissing worker representatives.

Alarmingly, the number of countries that impede the registration of unions has increased to 89, from 86 in 2019. Sudan has suspended all trade unions and associations and, in Bangladesh, of the 1,104 union registration applications examined between 2010 and 2019, 46 per cent were rejected by the Department of Labour.

Unacceptably high

An increase in the number of countries that deny or constrain freedom of speech shows the fragility of democracies, while the number of countries restricting access to justice has remained unacceptably high at last year’s levels.

Turkey and Hong Kong are among the most extreme examples of the 56 countries and territories that have denied or constrained freedom of speech, up from 54 in 2019.

In 72 per cent of countries workers have had no or restricted access to justice, with severe cases reported in Bangladesh, where labour courts have accumulated a three-year backlog, while a staggering 18,000 cases filed by workers have remained pending. In Iran, as of March 2020, 38 labour activists were still arbitrarily imprisoned, often detained in remote secret prisons, subjected to ill-treatment and denied access to a lawyer.

Trade union leaders from Indonesia, Korea and Turkey were among high-profile arrests in 2020. Workers experienced arbitrary arrests and detention in 61 countries.

Worst offenders

This seventh edition of the index ranks 144 countries on the degree of respect for workers’ rights. The ten worst countries for workers in 2020 are Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

Honduras has joined this group for the first time, while India’s repressive labour legislation has seen it re-enter since it first appeared in 2016. Egypt was one of the ten worst countries in 2015, 2017, 2018 and makes a return in 2020.

The middle east and north Africa is the worst region in the world for working people for the seventh year running—with the ongoing insecurity and conflict in Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Libya—coupled with being the most regressive region for workers’ representation and union rights.

Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Togo and Venezuela have all seen their ratings worsen in 2020. Several countries have seen their ratings improve, including Argentina, Canada, Ghana, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Spain and Vietnam.

Workers were killed, including at union-backed protests, in nine countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Iraq, the Philippines and South Africa. With six of the nine countries, the Americas became the deadliest place for workers. Overall, workers were exposed to violence in 51 countries.

Convergence of crises

Into this we have seen the arrival of Covid-19—the greatest disruption to the world economy in generations. But let’s be clear, the challenges we face remain the same. The pandemic represents a convergence of crises: inequality and distrust, the climate emergency, women’s equality, racism, technology, the crisis of multilateralism.

The social and economic shock has seen workers in many countries exposed to illness and death due to the existing repression of unions and the refusal of governments to respect rights and engage in social dialogue. These countries have found themselves unable to fight the pandemic effectively, and under the cover of measures to tackle coronavirus they are advancing their anti-workers’-rights agenda.

But this is where the ITUC Global Rights Index is most effective, because it is not just a list of violations: we will use it to build the new economic model the world needs as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. It must be a resilient global economy built on a new social contract: a new commitment to workers’ rights, renewed investment in compliance and the rule of law, and workplace democracy. These are the foundations for a future where we leave no one behind.

This article first appeared on Equal Times

Sharan Burrow
Sharan Burrow

Sharan Burrow is general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u4219834664e04a 8a1e 4ee0 a6f9 bbc30a79d0b1 2 Closing the Chasm: Central and Eastern Europe’s Continued Minimum Wage ClimbCarlos Vacas-Soriano and Christine Aumayr-Pintar
u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641