2015 ITUC Global Rights Index - Belarus

2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 5

Hunger strike workers in Belarus face jail:

Four metalworkers in Belarus, who went on a two-day hunger strike to bring public attention to their unfair dismissal, are now facing a fine or even jail. The desperate workers, who were employed by the Bobruisk Factory of Tractor Parts and Units (BZTDiA), were detained by police on 10 November 2014 while they were on hunger strike, and accused of unauthorised public protest. The workers, who are all members of the Free trade Union of Belarus (SPB), disagree with the accusation of an unauthorised protest and say they are in fact victims of arbitrary dismissal for being unionists. In a company response dated 14 November, the factory director said the dismissals were due to the optimisation of the factory workforce and were not linked to their SPB membership. However, BZTDiA has been advertising for new workers with the same skills as the people who were fired.

Workers wrote an open letter to the President of the Belarus last month, raising their concerns about how their factory is managed and the way in which the director was abusing the country's short-term contract system to dismiss highly skilled professionals for being unionists. The government response was simply to endorse the company's position.

The system of short-term contracts and its use in persecution of trade union activists in Belarus has been heavily criticised by the international labour movement. It formed part of the complaint against violations of Freedom of Association submitted to the International Labour Organization in 2000. Since then the ILO has regularly considered the Belarusian case, noting little or no progress in implementing recommendations made by an ILO Commission of Inquiry.

The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting fundamental rights under threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.