Egypt ranking as one of the 10 worst countries in the world for workers’ rights remains unchanged in 2026, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said in its annual Global Rights Index. Egypt has consistently held this standing since the index began in 2014, with prospective worsening conditions for the coming years, according to the report.
Egypt was assigned a rating of 5, defined as “no guarantee of rights,” the worst grade short of the 5+ reserved for countries where the rule of law has completely collapsed as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation.
Now in its 13th edition, the index rates 151 countries on a scale from 1 to 5+, using 97 indicators drawn from International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.
The government has continued to enforce the state’s Egyptian Trade Union Federation’s (ETUF) monopoly by obstructing the registration of independent trade unions, according to the index’s Egypt profile. At least 14 unions were unable to operate as of 2026, leaving millions of workers across the country without access to worker representation.
Authorities continued to impose unreasonable documentation requirements, delayed or denied registration certificates, and refused to register any new union where another union already exists in the same enterprise or sector. Legal thresholds for forming independent federations remain “excessive and unrealistic,” requiring at least 15,000 members across 10 unions, the report said.
Workers who try to form independent unions or engage in collective bargaining face dismissal or transfer, while labor activists risk arrest or terrorism charges for organizing. It also described state interference in union elections and governance as “pervasive and systematic,” saying the resulting climate of fear leaves hazardous workplaces and unfair practices unchecked.
Although the Egyptian constitution appears to protect peaceful strikes, the report said they are not tolerated in practice. The 2013 Protest Law and security decrees are used to ban gatherings deemed to “impede work,” it added, leaving workers with no safe avenue to raise grievances.
Regionally, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remained the world’s worst region for workers’ rights, with an unchanged average rating of 4.68.
All the region’s 19 countries violated the right to collective bargaining, the right to establish and join trade unions, and the right to register unions. The right to strike was suppressed in 18 of them; free speech and assembly were restricted in 17; and workers were denied access to justice in 16. Moreover, authorities arrested or detained workers in over half of MENA countries, and workers experienced violent attacks in just under half of them.
The ITUC annual index was published nearly a month after the Arab Trade Union Confederation issued its own annual report on union rights across the Arab region.
