This is the 12th edition of the ITUC Global Rights Index, the only comprehensive, worldwide annual study of the violation of workers’ rights — freedoms that form the basis of the democratic rule of law and fair working conditions for all.
This year’s Index reveals a stark and worsening global crisis for workers and unions. In 2025, average country ratings deteriorated in three out of five global regions, with Europe and the Americas recording their worst scores since the Index’s inception in 2014. Alarmingly, only seven out of 151 countries surveyed received the top-tier rating. The data shows a sharp escalation in violations of fundamental rights, including access to justice, the right to free speech and assembly, and the right to collective bargaining.
In this increasingly hostile environment, a growing number of state authorities are adopting legislation that criminalises civil society organisations — and, potentially, trade unions — as “foreign agents”, further delegitimising their role. Violations of the right to strike and the right to register a trade union remain at record levels, underscoring the intensifying crackdown on workers’ fundamental freedoms.
We are witnessing a coup against democracy: a concerted, sustained assault by state authorities and the corporate underminers of democracy on the rights and welfare of workers. Increasingly, this attack is orchestrated by far-right demagogues backed by billionaires who are determined to reshape the world in their own interests at the expense of ordinary working people.
To read the full report: click here.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.