Responding to the International Trade Union Confederation annual
Global Rights Index, showing that more than a third of the non-EU
countries with whom the UK has negotiated post-Brexit trade deals
are systematically abusing or denying workers’ rights, including
five of the ten countries rated ‘worst in the world for workers’,
Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary, , said:
“When these trade
negotiations began in the run up to Brexit, the government had a
golden opportunity – and a moral obligation – to make clear to
other countries around the world that if they wanted preferential
trade deals with the UK, they had to uphold the rights of their
workers.
“Instead of taking that stand, and her
colleagues have done the opposite, handing out trade deals to
dozens of governments with the worst track records in the world
for abusing and exploiting their workers, and making not one
single attempt to strengthen the provisions in these agreements
relating to workers’ rights. They have shown they literally could
not care less.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
1. The annual Global Rights Index, published by the International
Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), records the abuse of workers
rights across the world in 2020-21, ranging from restrictions on
strike action up to the murder of union organisers. The report
for 2021 can be accessed here: https://www.ituc-csi.org/2021-global-rights-index
2. The ITUC defines workers rights using the same core
International Labour Organisation principles recognised by the UK
government, including freedom of association and the right to
collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labour, and the
abolition of child labour.
3. The ITUC report reveals that, of the 67 non-EU countries with
whom the government has agreed ‘rollover deals’ since 2019 to
maintain preferential trade arrangements after Brexit: five are
listed among the ten worst countries in the world for workers
(Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, Turkey and Zimbabwe); 11 are placed
among the 44 countries where there is “no guarantee of workers’
rights” whatsoever (Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt,
Eswatini, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Palestine, Turkey, Ukraine
and Zimbabwe); and 14 are placed among the 38 countries where
there is “systematic violation of workers’ rights” (Botswana,
Cameroon, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Fiji, Kenya,
Lebanon, Panama, Peru, Serbia, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and
Vietnam).
4. The government is currently in negotiations with an additional
24 countries over outstanding rollover trade deals, entirely new
trade deals, or accession to existing trade deals. Of these,
Brazil is rated as among the ITUC’s 10 worst countries in the
world for workers, and an additional 13 are listed in Categories
4, 5 and 5+ for denial or systematic violation of workers’ rights
(Algeria, Bahrain, Burundi, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar,
South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, UAE and the USA). A further 2 of
the 24 countries are ‘unrated’ by the ITUC: Saudi Arabia because
they are awaiting assessment of the impact of current reforms;
and Brunei, due to the lack of civil society organisations and
available information in the country on which to make a rating.
5. The ITUC report catalogues a wide range of specific abuses
committed against workers by the UK’s trade partners in the past
year, including the murder of 22 trade unionists in Colombia; the
arrest of 13 nurses in Zimbabwe for requesting adequate
allowances and PPE for their work tackling Covid-19; the
prosecution of 26 Egyptian steel workers for striking over
non-payment of wages; and the violent treatment and mass
detention of 109 Turkish workers marching to protest against
unfair dismissals.
