Worst Countries To Work In Revealed By International Trade Union Confederation; See How Latin American Nations Rank

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has released a new report disclosing the condition of workers in 139 countries.

The ITUC gave each nation a Global Rights Index number on a scale of 1 (the best country for workers) to 5 (the worst country for workers). The Index is calculated by evaluating 97 workers' rights metrics, including: freedom from violent conditions, access to legal protections and due process and the ability to join unions.

Uruguay received a high ranking of 1 due to its strong labor laws and irregular violation of rights. The report explains that Unions have not reported regular or recurrent violations of rights in Uruguay, crediting the high score the a 2009 law -- the Law on Collective Bargaining 18566 -- which "reorganized bargaining units and added rural workers and domestic workers as a new sector in order to decrease informality and improve the working conditions in these sectors through collective bargaining processes." Additionally, President Tabaré Vázquez's move to instate a Wage Council in 2005 is believed to help Uruguayans earn better wages.

“Countries such as Denmark and Uruguay led the way through their strong labor laws, but perhaps surprisingly, the likes of Greece, the United States and Hong Kong, lagged behind,” wrote ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow in a statement about the report. “A country’s level of development proved to be a poor indicator of whether it respected basic rights to bargain collectively, strike for decent conditions, or simply join a union at all.”

In other Latin American and Caribbean countries, the scores varied from 3 to 5. Guatemala and Colombia were the two countries to earn a score of 5, while Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Peru and Argentina earned a score of 4. All other Latin American countries -- including the Caribbean nation of Dominican Republic -- earned a rank of 2, with the exclusion of Cuba and Costa Rica which did not have enough information to be ranked.

The United States -- which, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has a 16.7 percent Latino population -- earned a 4 due to "systematic violations" and "serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers."