The ITUC Global Rights Index 2017 has ranked Bangladesh among 10 countries from the bottom in the world for workers’ rights.The report, published by International Trade Union Confederation on June 13, said that the number of countries experiencing physical violence and threats against workers rose by 10 per cent (from 52 to 59 countries among), including Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia and Ukraine in just one year.The ITUC Global Rights Index 2017 ranked 139 countries against 97 internationally recognised indicators of workers’ rights.The report said that trade unionists were killed in 11 countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mauritania, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and Venezuela.It also said that attacks on union members were documented in 59 countries, fuelling growing anxiety about jobs and wages.According to the report, corporate interests were being put ahead of the interests of workers in the global economy, with 60 per cent of the countries excluding groups of workers from labour law.The report ranked the 10 worst countries for workers’ rights in 2017 – Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.The Philippines, South Korea and Kazakhstan joined the 10 worst ranking countries for the first time.International Trade Union Confederation has been collecting data on violations of workers’ rights to trade union membership and collective bargaining around the world for more than 30 years. For the fourth year, the confederation presented its findings on June 13 through the ITUC Global Rights Index, putting spotlight on how laws and business practices deteriorated or improved in the past one year.‘Trade unionists in Bangladesh have long suffered at the hands of the state, especially its notorious industrial police, and employers, which continued in 2017. The state authorities were swift to take reprisals against garment workers who took part in a weeklong strike in the Ashulia garment production district of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in December 2016,’ the report said.According to the report, at a more subtle level of anti-union discrimination, systematic obstacles remained to the registration of trade unions in Bangladesh, especially in the apparel sector. It said that only about 10 per cent of Bangladesh’s more than 4,500 apparel factories had registered unions, as the labour law required an unreasonably high 30 per cent of workers to agree to form a union.‘Denying workers protection under labour laws creates a hidden workforce, where governments and companies refuse to take responsibility, especially for migrant workers, domestic workers and those on short term contracts,’ ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said.She said that in too many countries, fundamental democratic rights were being undermined by corporate interests.Middle East and North Africa was the worst region for treatment of workers, with the Kafala system in the Gulf still enslaving millions of people, the report said.‘The absolute denial of basic workers’ rights remained in place in Saudi Arabia. In countries such as Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, conflict and breakdown of the rule of law means workers have no guarantee of labour rights,’ the report said.
