he 2024 Labour Rights Index, launched on the World Day for Decent Work (October 7), presents a promising outlook. It’s a testament to the progress being made in labour legislation worldwide, with more and more countries aligning their laws with international standards, a clear march to the top instead of a widely claimed race to the bottom.

The Labour Rights Index, a collaboration between the Wage Indicator Foundation (Netherlands) and the Centre for Labour Research (Pakistan), stands out as a comprehensive overview of workers’ rights in law. It rates 145 countries against ten indicators (46 sub-indicators), all derived from UN Conventions and ILO instruments and rooted in the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda.

Released biennially, the Index is a unique and comprehensive resource, considering its scale and scope. The third edition of the Labour Rights Index, building on the previous editions released in 2020 (115 countries) and 2022 (135 countries), provides objective legal data on labour laws in 145 countries. It’s a valuable tool based on the principles set down in international labour standards.

The index does not measure the countries against some gold-plated or utopian standards. The indicators represent the minimum in terms of working conditions that the world has already agreed upon by adopting these ILO instruments and UN conventions/ covenants. These are the basic labour protections or fundamental labour guarantees every worker should have access to, irrespective of contract or employment status.

Labour law comparisons are rare and restricted generally to employment protection legislation, working conditions legislation, equality laws or trade union rights legislation. In this background, the Labour Rights Index is the first comprehensive de jure Index which follows an employment life cycle approach. It evaluates countries using ten indicators: fair wages; decent working hours; employment security; family responsibilities; maternity protection; safe work; social security; equal treatment; child and forced labour; and freedom of association.

Based on their scores (ranging between 0 and 100), countries are graded on a six-point scale ranging from a Total Lack of Access to Decent Work to Access to Decent Work. The index measures the presence or absence of relevant legislation and does not comment on the implementation of legislation or its compliance at workplaces.

The Labour Rights Index makes a significant contribution by focusing on SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and its Target 8.8 (protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers). It’s a crucial tool in achieving Goal 8 under the Sustainable Development Goals, which refers to “full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

The index also aims at an active contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals by providing necessary (complementary) insights into de jure provisions on issues covered in particular by SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Jobs), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Strong Institutions).

The country profiles, a key feature of the Index, provide detailed contextual indicators such as population, labour force, informal economy, trade union density, workers per labour inspector and social protection coverage. These indicators help one understand the overall scores and ratings in a country and see how much of the enacted legislation turns into action, making the index’s findings applicable in real-world scenarios.

Key insights

With drastic changes to the world of work over the last two years, the Labour Rights Index has recorded significant developments in labour law. The most common reforms have been in the realm of equal access to jobs for women; maternity and paternity leaves; prohibition of inquiring about pregnancy during the recruitment process; and prohibition of sexual harassment at work. There are also reforms around equal remuneration for work of equal value and flexible working arrangements for parents. These changes indicate progress and encourage further reforms.

Middle Eastern countries have reformed the Kafala (sponsorship) system that came under scrutiny in the wake of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Legislative reforms have occurred in the European countries following the EU Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions (2019/1152) and the EU Directive on Work-life Balance for Parents and Carers (2019/1158).

Overall, 25 countries have seen their overall ratings improve while ratings have worsened for four countries. Oman, Malaysia, Angola, the UAE and Uzbekistan have shown the most improvement in their scores relative to the 2022 index.

Key takeaways

Regulatory frameworks are not enough:

There needs to be more than the mere existence of regulatory frameworks. The newly released B-Ready report by the World Bank clearly shows that there is a considerable gap between the de jure labour law (in the form of regulatory frameworks) and the provision of public services by state institutions. The critical question is whether these regulatory frameworks are compliant with internationally agreed labour standards available in ILO Conventions and Recommendations.

The index measures the quality of labour laws in 145 countries. For example, for the LRI, more than the mere existence of paid annual leave is required. The countries are scored positively only if there is a provision for at least three working weeks of annual leave. While 143 countries (out of the 145 assessed countries) provide annual leave in their legislation, only 70 percent (101 countries) require at least three working weeks of annual leave for workers upon completing 12 months of service. The standard is derived from the ILO Convention C132—Holidays with Pay Convention (Revised), 1970 (No. 132). Similar standards are derived from other ILO and UN instruments.

2. The abundance of labour legislation does not mean labour rights are protected.

There is a frequent argument that most countries already have enough legislation and that they should now put efforts into implementing it. That’s not necessarily the case. Pakistan has more than 40 pieces of labour legislation regulating the labour market. The labour legislation is mainly sector-specific, incoherent and inconsistent with international labour standards. The country is failing its 80 million labour force by retaining this outdated and incoherent legislation. Unless the labour legislation is aligned with international labour standards, the situation of workers’ rights on the ground cannot change in the country. Despite these laws, Pakistan has an overall score of 53.5, the second lowest in South Asia. If the Punjab and Sindh improve their legislation as per the newly drafted Labour Codes, the country’s overall score can improve significantly. For comparative analysis, the index scored legislation in all Pakistani provinces. The highest score was for Balochistan (73/100). It was followed by Sindh (59.5), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (59) and Punjab (53.5). The Islamabad Capital Territory received the lowest score (41), showing a dire need for reform.

A country does not have to be rich to protect workers’ rights:

While there is a gap of 19 points between the average scores of low-income (average score: 65) and high-income countries (average score: 84), there is a ray of hope, indicating that change is possible and is happening. A country does not have to be high-income or upper-middle-income to protect workers’ rights within its borders. The index identifies trailblasers from low-income and lower-middle-income countries with relatively high scores. They could be trendsetters in their respective regions. Mozambique (76) and Côte d’Ivoire (84.5) are countries from low-income and lower-middle-income groups. Yet, they have reasonably high scores compared with other countries in their groups, though more reforms are needed. The high-scoring countries from low-income groups are mainly from Africa and Central Asia.

Spotlight on South Asia:

The Labour Rights Index analyses legislation in 145 countries spread across 11 regions. As a region, South Asia is lagging behind, with the lowest average score of 57. With six countries covered under the index and a population of 1.91 billion people (780 million labour force), this is a cause of concern. However, given the current reform efforts in South Asian countries (India, for example, has introduced four new Labour Codes since 2020, though these are yet to be effective. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka too are working on reforming their labour legislation with complete drafts ready in Pakistan and Sri Lanka), the situation will hopefully improve not only in law but also in practice.

Progress on SDG Target 8.8, requiring the protection of labour rights for all workers, including those in precarious employment, can be measured only through the comprehensive Labour Rights Index. Given the labour market havoc wrought by Covid-19, climate change and worsening global conflicts, this is the most suitable time to address the protection of all labour rights and measure the progress of member countries on all labour protections. The Labour Rights Index does precisely that.

The writer is the Founder of the Centre for Labour Research, Pakistan. He can be reached at: ia72@cornell.edu