Each year, the ITUC Global Rights Index rates countries depending on their compliance with collective labour rights and documents the violations of internationally recognised rights by governments and employers.

The 10 worst countries for workers in 2025 were: Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tunisia, and Turkey.

Turkish authorities and employers continue to suppress union rights and persecute activists. Employers engage in systematic union-busting practices by dismissing workers who attempt to unionise. Following municipal elections in March 2024, 6,750 members of the Turkey Hak Isçi Sendikalari Konfederasyonu (HAK-IS) were dismissed and more than 30,000 members were forced to resign from the union.

Collective bargaining rights are severely hampered. In 2024, DISK/Dev Sağlık-Iş, which organises (healthcare workers, was barred from representing its 10,000 members in collective bargaining after the authorities erased the names of members from the health ministry’s official records. This reduced the union’s official representation to 0.99%, just below the one percent threshold required for collective bargaining. Among the names removed was that of Devrimci Isçi Sendikalari Konfederasyonu (DISK) General President Arzu Çerkezoğlu.

Arbitrary arrest of unionists

Remzi Çalışkan, Vice-President of DISK and President of the General Services Union, DİSK Çukurova Regional Representative Kemal Göksoy, and former Diyarbakır Regional Representative Serdar Ekingen were arrested in November 2024 on charges dating back 15 years. Çalışkan was released a month later, while Göksoy and Ekingen remain in detention.

On 7 October 2024, Ismet Arslan, a Kamu Emekçileri Sendikalari Konfederasyonu (KESK) collective bargaining expert and a member of the DİSK/Sosyal-İş Union, was arrested and imprisoned. Two other KESK/Eğitim Sen members were also detained. Arslan, who is undergoing cancer treatment, along with fellow unionists Yusuf Eminoğlu and Giyasettin Yiğit, was released in March 2025; however, their trial remains ongoing.

May Day demonstrations in Istanbul were, once again, disrupted by the police. About 215 people were arrested and many injured after state authorities fired tear gas and rubber bullets. On 2 May 2024, a further 29 people were arrested.

Reduced access to justice in 72% of countries

Some of the other countries highlighted in the report are as follows:

Workers had no or reduced access to justice in 72% of countries, a sharp increase from 65% in 2024.

In the Philippines, charges remain pending against activists who provided humanitarian aid to displaced Indigenous communities in 2018. Meanwhile, two French unionists remain unlawfully detained under harsh conditions in Iran, following their arrest in 2022 on spurious national security charges.

Attacks on the rights to free speech and assembly were reported in 45% of countries – a record high for the Index and an increase from 43% in 2024.

In Benin, workers were arrested during May Day celebrations, highlighting the growing repression of public expression. In the Russian Federation, draconian “Covid” restrictions on public events remain in place, giving authorities the power to prohibit union gatherings under the guise of health measures.

The right to strike was violated in 87% of countries – unchanged from the Index high of 131 countries in 2024.

In Cameroon, a seasonal worker was killed by police during a demonstration by SOSUCAM sugar workers for better pay and safer conditions. In Iraq, police attacked and injured striking oil workers during a protest about their status.