20 November, 2008A worldwide total of 91 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers' rights while serious and systematic harassment and intimidation was reported in 63 countries.
BELGIUM: The International Trade Union Confederation's Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations reveals an appalling record of union-busting, anti-union laws, intimidation, violence against workers' representatives, and an increase in precarious employment in 2007.
The Survey, which covers worker rights violations in 138 countries, reported a number of disturbing trends, including collusion between some governments and employers to deprive working women and men of their legitimate rights to union membership and representation.
According to the report, 73 unionists were sent to prison in 2007 and new legal and administrative measures to restrict union activities, in breach of International Labour Organisation Conventions, were introduced in 15 countries.
In Africa, employers in several countries used defective labour legislation to instigate and encourage splits in trade unions and create employer-controlled groups to displace legitimate worker representation. Restrictions on legitimate union activities also continued in several industrialized countries as well, with workers in the public sector in particular deprived of their union rights.
The survey also highlighted alarming developments repeated in cases throughout the report concerning wholesale moves by national and multinational employers, often facilitated by legislative provisions, to replace full-time and permanent jobs with precarious employment, by forcing workers into temporary, casual and part-time arrangements, reducing their incomes, removing job security and leaving them open to unfair and unjustified treatment, including the risk of losing their livelihoods with little or no advance notice or compensation. Many companies have moved in this direction by replacing regular workers with "contract labour", thus avoiding duties and responsibilities which they would otherwise have to meet.
The report is available in four languages, French, English, Spanish and German and is available in hardcopy or online at: http://survey08.ituc-csi.org/.