In this issue
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Unions back IMPACT on gender pay gap
SNAs to ballot for action
Pensions and new entrants explained
IMPACT’s Callinan re-elected as ICTU VP
Deal on civil service specialist posts
Trade unionists killed in 11 countries
by Lughan Deane
 

There were attacks on trade unionists in 59 countries last year, including killings in 11 states, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) 2017 global rights index. The index ranks workers’ rights in almost every country in the world using 97 metrics.

The countries where trade union officials or activists were murdered were Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mauritania, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and Venezuela.

ITUC’s latest annual review reports that the number of countries in which workers experience serious threats has risen 10% in the last year – from 52 countries to 59. Over three-quarters of countries deny workers at least some part of the rights to strike and to bargain collectively. And, worryingly, 60% of countries exclude certain classes of workers from protections under labour laws.

ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow, who spoke at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ conference in Belfast last week, said “We need to look no further than these shocking figures to understand why economic inequality is the highest in modern history. Working people are being denied the basic rights through which they can organise and collectively bargain for a fair share. This, along with growing constraints on freedom of speech, is driving populism and threatening democracy itself.”

According to the index, the ten worst-performing nations on earth in terms of workers’ rights are Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

It placed Ireland in the second best category. This section, labelled ‘repeated violation of rights,’ also includes Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Rwanda and several others.

 

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