U.S. study: Portugal in world top five for best protecting workers' rights

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Portugal is one of the five countries that best protect workers' rights, which are among the least protected human rights in the world, indicates a study released on Friday by Binghamton University in New York State.

According to the study, published in the academic journal Human Rights Quarterly, the five countries with the best scores for protecting workers' rights are Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway and Portugal. The five worst are Iran, Syria, North Korea, China and Iraq.

In a statement, the university said that the data is included in the 2023 annual report of the CIRIGHTS Data Project, "the largest human rights dataset in the world."

"The project ranks [195] countries around the world on their respect for human rights", based on "25 internationally recognized human rights", and is led by David Cingranelli, professor of political science at Binghamton University.

The assessment of workers' rights takes into account data on unionization, collective bargaining, the existence of working hours, forced labor, child labor, minimum wage, safe working conditions and human trafficking.

The right to form a union and the right to collective bargaining "are among the least protected human rights" and are "always violated to some extent," the researchers wrote.

For example, in relation to respect for collective bargaining, 51 % of the countries received a score of zero, which means widespread violations of this right, and only 16 "scored two", i.e. the researchers found no indication of a violation. In the case of child labor, the report indicates that "around 87% of countries" worldwide have recorded cases of employment of children and adolescents and that "in a third of countries the violations were widespread".

"Previous research shows that governments are unlikely to protect the rights to an adequate minimum wage, to health and safety at work or to reasonable limits on working hours (including voluntary overtime) unless workers are allowed to form independent trade unions and bargain collectively," said Cingranelli, quoted in the statement.

"The right to unionize, to negotiate and to strike are access rights. If they are protected, it is likely that all other labor rights will also be protected. But access rights are in decline worldwide," he added.

Cignarelli pointed out that although democratic and rich countries protect labour rights more than others, economic inequality has increased almost everywhere.

"Economic globalization has increased competition between nations, which has led governments to favor companies over workers in conflicts between the two," he explained.

According to Cignarelli, in less economically developed countries, the big agricultural, mining and oil extraction companies do what they want in relation to workers.

He also said that it was "important to remember that companies and workers usually take antagonistic positions on how much attention business leaders should pay to what workers want in relation to the terms and conditions of their labor", adding that the former "usually prefer to distribute most of the profit (...) to shareholders and not to workers".

The existence in a country of a demanding labor law can lead companies to relocate, but Cignarelli noted that the government has the role of ensuring that workers have a fair chance to make their concerns heard.

"Without government policies that protect workers, companies can do whatever they want to keep unions at bay," said the researcher.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: U.S. study: Portugal in world top 5 for best protecting workers' rights