The Philippines continues to be – for the fifth year running — one of the top 10 worst countries for working people, according to the 2021 International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Global Rights Index.
The 10 worst countries for working people in 2021 include: Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, Myanmar, the Philippines, Turkey. and Zimbabwe, the ITUC report stated while noting that these countries are considered the worst globally due to killings, arrests, violations of right to establish and join a trade union, among others.
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Belarus and Myanmar have been recently added to the ITUC list.
The Philippines has been on the ITUC list since 2017 – the first year of President Rodrigo Duterte being elected – and is also considered to be one of +six nations where trade unionists were murdered.+ The six countries are: Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Myanmar, Nigeria, and the Philippines.
Meanwhile, ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow recently highlighted the report detailing how Covid-19 had increased the abuses being experienced by workers through governments and employers.
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She said that the Global Rights Index exposed a +shameful roll call+ of governments and companies pursuing an anti-union agenda against workers, who were in the frontline in essential work that kept economies and communities functioning.
However, the governments and employers exploited the pandemic and the affected by increasing surveillance, breaking agreements, laying off workers, blocking and intimidating unions, and resorting to violence and murder, she said, adding that around 87 percent of countries violated the right to strike while 79 percent violated the right to collectively bargain. (AW)
