Africa’s Labour in Crisis: Nigeria, Egypt & Eswatini Among the Worst Places to Be a Worker
Nigerian workers during a protest
Introduction: An Alarming Ranking for African Workers
The International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) Global Rights Index 2025 names Nigeria, Egypt, and Eswatini among the top 10 worst places in the world to be a worker. African countries collectively scored their second-worst regional rating ever; a stark indicator of shrinking freedoms, rising repression, and diminished workers’ power.
This crisis is neither abstract nor occasional. It is structural, undermining democracy, dignity, and progress across the continent.
Nigeria (Rating: 5 – “No Guarantee of Rights”)
What happened: Nigeria debuted on the worst-country list in 2025. Union leaders have been arrested on spurious charges, labour protests violently dispersed, and critical collective agreements ignored.
Unions involved:
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC): Represents public and private sector workers. Successfully drove protests for minimum wage, but its leadership faces targeting and intimidation.
Trade Union Congress (TUC): An umbrella body supporting affiliated unions; health, transport, and educators through protests and legal challenges.
Power dynamic: The government balances neoliberal fiscal policy with authoritarian methods, suppressing dissent while leaving wage battles unresolved.
Egypt (Rating: 5 – “No Guarantee of Rights”)
What happened: All independent unions were disbanded in 2018. Strikes are banned, leaders arrested or disappeared, and only state-approved syndicates exist.
Unions involved:
Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU): Formed after the Arab Spring, but shut down in 2018. Attempts to revive independent organising have been met with state repression. Proxy bodies like the “Egyptian Trade Union Federation” exist, but are controlled by the government.
Power dynamic: A coercive political system that treats labour mobilisation as political opposition; a crisis of democratic space.
Eswatini (Rating: 5 – “No Guarantee of Rights”)
Unions involved:
What happened: As one of the world’s only absolute monarchies, Eswatini bans free association and assembly. Trade unions operate underground, and TUCOSWA leaders face arrest, torture, or exile .
Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA): Advocates for labour rights despite brutal suppression, including police baton attacks and mass detentions.
Power dynamic: The monarchy exerts full control; labor rights are portrayed as threats to state security.
How Africa Became a Global Hotspot for Labour Repression
According to ITUC’s index:
90% of African countries restrict collective bargaining, union formation, or the right to strike.
There has been a rise in killings and disappearances of union leaders, with documented deaths in Cameroon, South Africa, and Zimbabwe .
State and corporate collusion enables systematic impunity for labour rights violations .
This trend mirrors the global authoritarian drift seen in Latin America, Asia, and even within the EU, where labour rights face new challenges, and where Africa now increasingly lags behind.
Urgent Pathways to Labour Justice in Africa
Legal Guarantees: Countries must ratify and enforce ILO Conventions 87 (Freedom of Association) and 98 (Right to Organise and Bargain) to protect union activity.
Abolition of Repressive Laws: Decriminalise strikes and repeal Public Order statutes used to suppress protests and organising.
Enforcement Bodies: Empower labour inspectorates and courts with independence, resources, and transparency.
Regional Solidarity: Entities like ITUC-Africa and OATUU, supported by the AU, must link funding and cooperation to labour freedom indicators.
Corporate Accountability: Governments and investors should impose binding labour rights clauses on foreign direct investment and global supply chains.
Union Training & Political Mobilisation: Labour organisations must build legal defence tools, support whistle-blowers, and run community campaigns.
Public Awareness & Alliances: Launch campaigns linking labour rights to democracy, such as “No Union, No Vote”, with backing from students, civil society, and media.
Conclusion: A Delicate Balancing Act; The Role of the State in Labour Rights
As South Africa wrestles with the implementation of the Employment Equity Amendment Act, it is vital to situate this moment within a broader global pattern, where governments are being called to choose between deepening repression or committing to inclusive reform through meaningful engagement with workers and international labour standards.
Engaging with trade unions and the International Labour Organization (ILO) presents both risks and opportunities for states. On the one hand, such engagement opens space for social dialogue, conflict resolution, and more stable industrial relations. It signals a government’s willingness to uphold democratic values and international obligations. It can also help attract ethical investment and align national labour systems with global supply chain standards.
On the other hand, states may perceive independent unions as politically threatening, especially in contexts where labour activism has historically driven democratic change, as seen in Egypt, Eswatini, and Nigeria. Governments navigating economic crises or authoritarian tendencies may opt for control over collaboration, suppressing unions and side-lining international frameworks.
China for instance, illustrates a different path: while the state prohibits free association and independent unions, it maintains an official, party-aligned union (the All-China Federation of Trade Unions) to monitor worker sentiment, preempt unrest, and channel grievances. While this system allows for a degree of worker-state engagement, it is inherently top-down, with limited space for genuine worker empowerment or dissent. The result is a model that manages labour unrest but falls short of ensuring labour justice or democratic accountability.
This approach is increasingly mirrored in parts of Africa, where union co-optation or fragmentation is used as a tool to neutralize worker power. But such systems come at a cost: they weaken the very foundation of social justice and leave workers vulnerable to exploitation and retaliation.
Ultimately, the path forward must not be one of state surveillance disguised as engagement. Rather, it must be rooted in freedom of association, collective bargaining, and democratic inclusion. True equity cannot be achieved without respecting the agency of those most affected: workers themselves. As African countries contend with difficult reforms like the EEAA, governments must guard against rigid, one-size-fits-all applications and instead embrace participatory processes that elevate the voices of workers, especially those at the margins.
When workers are heard, not just counted, nations move closer to justice.
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