Workers’ rights are deteriorating significantly across the globe, with conditions in Europe and the United States now at their worst since 2014, according to this year’s Global Rights Index of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), as reported today by the Nezavisnost trade union portal.
According to the newly published Global Rights Index 2026, the ITUC warns that the crisis in workers’ rights is shifting from the margins of the world economy to the very heart of developed democracies. This trend is being fuelled by the rise of the far right, particularly in Europe, where open hostility towards trade unions is becoming increasingly apparent.
This year’s report by the global trade union body, published under the slogan “The Fight for Democracy”, shows that violence against workers continues to rise worldwide. In nearly three-quarters of countries around the world, workers are denied access to justice in various ways, while in every second country workers are arrested or detained.
According to the Global Rights Index criteria, the ten worst countries for workers this year are Argentina, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria, Panama, Tunisia and Turkey.
The United States has, for the first time, been placed in the category rated 4 (systematic violations of rights) due to substantial pressure on collective bargaining and the suppression of trade union organising.
Several European countries also received poorer ratings than before, most notably France, which recorded its worst-ever result after its rating deteriorated from 2 (repeated violations of rights) to 3 (regular violations of rights) because of repression against trade unionists and restrictions on the right to protest.
Only three countries in the world improved their ratings. Chief among them was Uruguay, which advanced to the highest rating of 1, while the United Kingdom and Botswana improved their scores from 4 to 3.
Serbia among countries using trade union suppression tactics
The ITUC’s official report identifies several negative records, like employers increasingly using digital surveillance to monitor, discipline and silence workers and trade unions. Many governments are also explicitly employing tactics aimed at suppressing trade unions and interfering in their activities, including the United States, Estonia, Serbia, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland.
The 2026 Global Rights Index ranked a total of 151 countries on the basis of 97 indicators derived from International Labour Organization conventions.
The highest rating, 1, denotes countries where workers’ rights are only occasionally violated. A rating of 2 is assigned to countries where violations are repeated, while a rating of 3 is given to countries where workers’ rights are regularly violated.
A rating of 4 is assigned to countries that systematically violate the labour rights of their citizens (a category to which Serbia has traditionally belonged), while a rating of 5 is reserved for countries where such rights are not guaranteed at all.
The worst rating, 5+, is assigned to countries where wars and similar conflicts have completely undermined legal systems, the Nezavisnost portal reported.
(Danas, 02.06.2026)