Europe

In Kazakhstan, 21 workers faced criminal charges for participating in an illegal strike and 12 were fired, after some 400 employees of the Kezbi LLP, an oilfield service company in Zhanaozen, took industrial action in April 2022. Their demands included fair wages and better working conditions.

On 23 March 2022, the Court of Cassation of Belgium rejected the appeal presented by the Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique (FGTB) against the unjust sentencing of 17 union members following a road blockade of the Cheratte bridge during a strike action in October 2015. In doing so, the Court confirmed the suspended prison sentences and fines already handed down.

In Belgium, article 406 of the penal code allows for prosecution and sentencing for “malicious obstruction of traffic” in the context of a strike movement. This provision severely hampers possibilities to organise strikes in the country. The FGTB has indicated that it will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

In June 2022, due to the refusal of the Ireland-based airline Ryanair to negotiate with the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) and the Independent Union of Airline Passenger Cabin Crew (SITCPLA), the workers began a strike at the headquarters in Spain. Unions were denouncing the airline’s repeated breach of the labour laws and the company’s refusal to enter into a collective agreement. Ryanair retaliated by dismissing 22 workers and opening disciplinary measures against striking workers.

In Montenegro, workers at Crnogorski Telekom, the largest telecommunications company in the country, announced collective action to protest the management’s refusal to negotiate a new collective agreement. During the strike, the employer tried to block communication between union members. Management also sent emails to all employees that contained threats of dismissals and unilaterally decided workers’ rotations, even though the union’s Strike Board had submitted a list of employees on strike, as required by law. By requisitioning workers, the company tried to break the strike. The company also retaliated against striking workers by docking their pay.

The right to strike in Hungary’s public education sector has been heavily restricted by the government in retaliation against the increasing dissatisfaction of teachers and their earlier strike actions. A temporary government decree was issued in February 2022, ordering that supervision in early childhood facilities had to be fully maintained, thereby forcing workers back in schools. Similar provisions were made for elementary and secondary schools. The decree also stipulated that workers who had declared being on strike would not receive their remuneration, despite being present. In late 2022, these temporary regulatory provisions were converted into law (Act V of 2022), thereby crushing any future attempt at organising strike action in the public education sector.

During the national strike of 9 November 2022 in Belgium, following a blockage of the company CWS, a sanitation and hygiene service provider, a formal notice was sent by the employer to two workers with a threat of dismissal and a claim for compensation of €24,000 (US$26,300) for alleged loss of earnings due to the strike. Following the intervention of the unions, the company finally withdrew the compensation claim, but maintained the disciplinary sanction against the two employees.

Trade unions representing members in the National Health Services (NHS), education, and civil service in the United Kingdom were in dispute with the government over 2022-2023 pay awards. The government refused to bargain on pay, claiming that it must follow the recommendations of the pay review body (PRB), while in fact, the government has full freedom to accept, reject or implement PRB recommendations. Furthermore, PRBs has its remit set by the Treasury in advance of making its recommendations. This undermines its independence and autonomy, a claim further damaged by the fact that PRB members are appointed by government. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) deplored that the government would use such a pretext to avoid collective bargaining.

In September 2022, workers at the ETF Tekstil factory in Istanbul, Turkey, organised a picket outside the factory to protest the management’s decision to close operations at the end of July without prior negotiations with the workers’ representatives. Citing a financial crisis, the employer refused to pay the more than 300 workers according to the collective agreement. Workers at the factory are covered by a collective agreement, which entitles them to bonuses, severance and notice payment, and annual leave. The employer offered to pay 70 per cent of the severance pay, which was rejected by the union. Since then, there has been no further engagement from the employer.

The Turkish Wood and Paper Industry Workers’ Union (AGAC-IS) went on strike on 27 October 2022 as a response to the longstanding union busting and other labour rights violations carried out by ASD Laminat, a Turkish wood processing company infamous for its anti-union policies.

The company notoriously refused to recognise the trade union formed by workers, targeting and dismissing all its workers in the last five years. It also refused to engage in collective bargaining.

In June 2022, after a five-year legal battle, a court ordered ASD Laminat to start negotiations with the union. But instead of following the court order, ASD Laminat summarily dismissed 180 workers, all members of the union.

In Spain, it was common practice for employers to try to delay collective bargaining. The Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) deplored that in several sectors, employers often did not respect their obligations under collective agreements, and refused to apply the wage rates agreed in the collective agreements by applying to authorities for an exemption (descuelgue salarial).

In Serbia, national trade unions have tried to renegotiate the General Collective Agreement since its expiry in May 2011, but faced strong opposition from the Serbian Association of Employers. Although the bargaining committee of the representative trade unions was formed in time, and negotiations were initiated prior to the expiry of the Agreement, the Serbian Association of Employers interrupted the process, without an explanation, after the second meeting. There has still been no progress in negotiating a new General Collective Agreement, despite efforts made by the trade union confederations and the Social and Economic Council.

In Serbia, employers often refused to enter negotiations with the representatives of trade unions, unduly delayed negotiations, or circumvented workers’ representation by entering into individual negotiations with workers.

In Poland, violations of collective bargaining rights by employers were extremely frequent, including undue delays, refusal to negotiate or to apply the provisions of an agreement, and unilateral termination of a collective agreement. At KCP Sp. z o.o, a motor vehicle parts manufacturer, management has refused to engage in collective bargaining with the company trade union for two years. Instead, the company started individual talks with selected people. Similar anti-union behaviour was seen in CEDC International Sp. z o.o. Polmos Białystok Branch, Therma Sp. z o.o, Distribev Ltd, and Stellantis Gliwice.

In Portugal, employers often refused to negotiate or intentionally delayed negotiations without a valid motive, especially regarding wages.

It was very common in the Netherlands for digital platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo to refuse to comply with a collective agreement, despite a court ruling ordering them to do so.

In the Netherlands, The Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV), has been trying for over 15 years to reach a collective agreement in the meat processing industry, especially over access of union officials to the workplace. For decades, trade union officials who have tried to hand out flyers on parking lots were met with intimidation and attacks by employers, who even declared that they would only allow access of their premises to trade union officials when legally forced to do so. The meat sector has a high percentage of migrant workers who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and precarious working conditions.

In the Netherlands, employers often negotiated with yellow unions or the companies’ works council to adopt pay cuts. For example, travel company TUI refused to enter into collective bargaining with The Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV), despite a petition to do so by hundreds of workers. Instead, TUI intended to enter negotiations with its own established group. The FNV had to seek remedy in court.

There is no legislation in the country ensuring that only independent trade unions are allowed to conclude collective agreements, or that trade unions take precedence over works councils. As a result, where unions decide on a collective action in the context of a negotiation, employers can undermine the union’s position, simply by concluding an agreement with yellow unions or works councils.

In Montenegro, Crnogorski Telekom, the largest telecommunications company in the country, refused to negotiate a new collective agreement and instead unilaterally decided a number of measures, including using contracted labour to avoid the application of collectively agreed pay rates. Trade unions filed a complaint to the relevant authorities.

In Hungary, trade unions observed that some employers in the automotive sector had introduced organisational measures unilaterally, without consultation with the relevant trade unions. In the railway sector, employers purposely delayed negotiations. Rejecting or not responding to unions’ invitations for consultation on wages was also common practice in the country.

Additionally, when unions reported violations of collective agreements, employers sometimes threatened workers with the unilateral termination of established collective agreements. This was the case in 2022 where an employer renounced the collective agreement in force, which contained several provisions on dismissals, just before announcing collective redundancies.

In Greece, violations of collective agreements were common. Companies often refused to apply existing collective labour agreements. This behaviour was further compounded by Law 4808/2021, which provides that in case of challenge of a collective agreement before the courts, the collective agreement is suspended until a final court decision is issued. The law bears the risk of suspending the implementation of collective agreements for long periods of time, pending review by the judiciary, and thus depriving workers of the benefit of the negotiated provisions.

In Greece, the legislative framework adopted in the context of the bail-out agreements (Memoranda) in the past decade have severely obstructed collective bargaining in the country and the consequences were still visible in 2023. Employers often engaged in bad faith during collective bargaining processes, knowing that the legal mechanisms by which unions could appeal to arbitration in case of stalemate have been removed.

Employers often circumvented genuine representation of workers in collective bargaining processes by engaging with “associations of persons”. These associations form a caricature of trade union organisations, as their members do not enjoy protection against anti-union discrimination and, therefore, they have no real bargaining power vis-à-vis the employer.

Many employer federations in Finland have purposefully delayed negotiations on collective agreements in 2022-2023, including the employers’ federation for the retail sector, which cancelled several negotiation days already agreed upon.

In Bulgaria, employers often refused to engage in collective bargaining and tried to undercut trade unions by offering individual advantages to workers outside of concluded collective agreements.

In Armenia, there was a persistent lack of collective bargaining, and workers’ representatives in state enterprises, municipal authorities and public entities were not consulted on major labour policies. A similar disregard for collective bargaining was seen in the mining, metallurgy and jewellery industries.

In the Netherlands, members of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV) have been threatened and intimidated on several occasions by representatives of the Tempo Team employment agency.

FNV members were standing on the public road at a PostNL location to talk to employees about their terms of employment and working conditions, in the framework of the ongoing negotiation of the PostNL and temporary employment collective agreement.

A Tempo Team representative approached them in an aggressive manner, forbidding any contact between FNV members and the Tempo Team employees and ordering the trade unionists to leave. He then called for backup from management. FNV attempted to approach the workers. However, every time they did, one representative of the Tempo Team management would come between them and would tell the temporary workers that Tempo Team did not allow them to talk to the FNV.

In Bursa, Turkey, 10 women workers were laid off in Barutçu Tekstil, a textile factory, after they joined trade union Öz İplik-İş in 2022. The company claimed the layoffs were part of a downsizing operation and not due to the workers’ union membership. However, the dismissals occurred only two days after the workers decided to join the trade union.

The vast majority of workers at Barutçu Tekstil are women. They are forced to do overtime and do not receive proper break times. Although the law prescribes the organisation to provide daycare at the factory, this obligation has never been met.

The dismissed workers immediately organised a sit-in to demand their reinstatement but after 111 days of protest, the management of the factory still refused to heed their request.

Around 180 members of the Turkish Paper and Wood Industry Workers Union (AGAC-IS) were illegally dismissed by ASD Laminat on 2 July 2022. The dismissals were carried out as part of a retaliatory measure implemented by the company, after the union won a recent court decision affirming its right to organise and bargain collectively.

In 2017, AGAC-IS organised an overwhelming majority of workers at the ASD Laminat factory in Düzce, Turkey. The union then successfully obtained legal authority from the Ministry of Labour to enter into collective bargaining with the company. ASD Laminat responded by filing a court case against the union.

After five years, the court issued a ruling confirming the union’s right to organise and bargain collectively. Instead of engaging in social dialogue, ASD Laminat resorted to harassing and illegally firing unionists to dissuade workers from supporting the union.

The workers went on strike on 27 October in protest of the years of union busting by ASD.

Workers at the Philip Morris factory in İzmir, Turkey, were paid less than the poverty threshold and suffered from discrimination between permanent and subcontracted workers, despite the fact that they performed the same tasks. As a result of these difficulties, almost all the company’s workers became members of the DİSK/Gıda-İş Union. Following the union meetings and actions, 124 workers were sacked. Workers organised picket lines in front of the factory. However, the company continued to refuse to negotiate.

DPD Switzerland engaged in union-busting practices. In 2022, the company prompted their subcontractor to fire five delivery workers, all members of Unia. Two of them had been elected by their colleagues to represent them at national and international level. The workers were told they were dismissed for poor performance. Yet one of them had been recognised as one of the company’s three best drivers 10 times in a row in 2021. By outsourcing to small companies and forcing intense competition amongst them, DPD pushed substandard working conditions while avoiding any responsibility. However, workers had to wear DPD uniforms, drive DPD vans, and deliver exclusively for DPD.

In Serbia, ever since 2019, when the three unions at the publicly owned Republic Geodetic Authority (RGA) jointly organised strike action, trade union members have experienced discrimination and intimidation by the management.

In mid-2022, when union leaders addressed a sudden stoppage of the RGA work and publicly blamed management, the RGA administration engaged in a direct attack on trade unions and their spokespersons. It suspended the three trade union presidents, and implemented transfers, disciplinary proceedings and other retaliatory measures against trade union activists.

In Serbia, employers have often dismissed, transferred, or demoted workers and trade union members (or used threats of such measures) to deter them from joining trade unions or engaging in trade union activities, as was the case at Yura Corporation, a cable and harnessing manufacturing company.

Employers also attempted to establish yellow unions in many public companies, including the Post Office.

The Union of Teachers of the North Region in Portugal discovered that their notice boards were removed without their consent or knowledge and their location changed to a less visible place, just as the sector unions was preparing for a national strike call on 2 November 2022. The illegal removal of union notice boards, and the resulting lack of access of workers to union information, had a clear impact on workers’ participation in the strike. For the Union of Teachers of the North Region, this violation was preceded by anti-union discrimination measures, leading to the removal of the union leaders from school facilities.

In Portugal, workers often did not disclose their union membership for fear of anti-union discrimination in their careers. The União Geral de Trabalhadores (UGT-P) reported increasing pressure from employers to discourage workers from joining trade unions, compounded by high levels of precarious employment and a large number of small enterprises.

On 28 November 2022, Dariusz Kawka, leader of NSZZ "Solidarność" in IKEA Industry Poland Ltd. and a member of IKEA European Works Council, was dismissed from his job on disciplinary grounds without a notice period, despite his union activity, which protects him from dismissal without prior approval of the company’s trade union organisation. After an inspection by the State Labour Inspectorate, it was reported that the employer had grossly violated labour law. Despite the union exchanging letters with the employer, including the corporation’s board of directors, and many other actions to protect Dariusz Kawka from dismissal, the employer refused to reinstate him.

This union-busting tactic was also observed in other companies, such as Nexteer Automotive Poland and KCP Ltd.

In North Macedonia, Stojce Jovanovski, the president of the KPU Zatvor-Skopje trade union, a prison facility, was victim of harassment and threats of dismissal by management in 2021 and 2022, until his unfair dismissal in May 2022. Since then, the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Macedonia (KSS) has filed over 15 court cases seeking his reinstatement.

In Hungary, employers in the industrial sector misused the procedure for trade union leave, by which a trade union representative must first receive permission from his/her employer to take leave, and arbitrarily refused to grant time off for trade union activities. This practice was in clear violation of the laws that set detailed and restrictive conditions under which employers can reject the request.

On 31 May 2022, around 400 workers at IDS Borjomi, a mineral water plant in Georgia, began striking to protest wage cuts, the termination of 49 workers, including the union’s leader Tsotne Kiknadze and union committee members, and the company’s theft of union dues.

Management attempted to intimidate, threaten and blackmail the workers.

On 13 June, the Prime Minister of Georgia ordered the Ministers of Economy and Labour to facilitate negotiations between the workers and the employer.

On 21 June, after 22 days of strike action, the union reached an agreement with the management of IDS Borjomi, including reinstatement of the workers whose jobs had been illegally terminated.

In the private sector in Greece, employers dismissed, transferred and downgraded unionised workers, or used the threat of such measures against workers to discourage them from joining a union.

On 12 September 2022, a French court ruled in favour of unions FO, CFDT and CGT, recognising employer interference in the 2019 social elections held by the care home provider Orpea. The court overturned the election results and ruled that new elections must be held.

The case arose as the French unions denounced the rigged elections in favour of yellow union Arc-En-Ciel. Candidates of this yellow union had largely benefited from “financial and tactical support” from management.

In 2022, several representatives of the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) were victims of harassment and anti-union discrimination measures, including demotion, disciplinary sanctions, dismissals and filing of lawsuits for strike action.

In 2022, several representatives of the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) were victims of harassment and anti-union discrimination measures, including demotion, disciplinary sanctions, dismissals and filing of lawsuits for strike action.

In Bulgaria, workers faced obstacles to joining trade unions, as employers terminated unionised workers' contracts, harassed trade union leaders, established yellow unions and refused to collect union dues, despite check-off agreements.

Following a strike notice issued by the SETCa at a seniors’ residence in Belgium, the local and regional company directors tried to intimidate workers during a staff meeting to dissuade them from taking part in the action on 20 January 2023.

In Belgium, employers frequently attempted to dismiss union representatives without being able to justify serious misconduct or without respecting the prior authorisation procedure of the labour court, in order to undermine the work of the trade union delegation in the company. Some multinationals chose to illegally dismiss shop stewards and pay severance, rather than let them carry out union activities.

In the public sector in Armenia, trade unions were often subjected to illegal investigation of their books of accounts and financial documents by employers.

In April 2022, the Certification Officer, which regulates trade union affairs in the United Kingdom, was handed extensive new powers. These included the ability to initiate investigations without a trade unionist making a complaint, the right to demand documents, to appoint outside investigators, and to impose financial penalties on unions for breaches of statute. This gives the state considerably more influence over internal trade union affairs.

State authorities in Kazakhstan have hampered the functioning of independent trade unions in the country by simply de-registering and refusing to reregister unions. In January 2021, the authorities de-registered the branch of the Sectoral Fuel and Energy Workers’ Union (SFEWU)in the Kyzylorda region, founding the decision on an alleged de-registration request made by an ex-chair. The union made several attempts throughout 2021 and 2022 to re-register but its numerous requests were denied by the authorities on spurious grounds.

Kazakh authorities further complicated the registration procedure of the sectoral union with the administrative territorial reform of 8 June 2022, which created three new regions. The Kazakh law imposes, as one of the requirements for registration, that trade unions form branches of an industry trade union in more than half of the regions of Kazakhstan. The creation of more regions therefore constitutes an additional hurdle for the SFWEU and all trade unions seeking re-registration.

State authorities in Kazakhstan have long been impeding the operation of independent trade unions in the country by simply de-registering and refusing to re-register unions. In 2017, the registration of the KNPRK, now the Congress of Free Trade Unions (KSPRK), was withdrawn by the authorities. Six years later, and despite the Government’s repeated expressions of commitment to resolving the matter, KSPRK remains unregistered.

In Greece, Law 4808/2021 provided for the establishment of an electronic general Registry of Trade Unions of Employees maintained by the Ministry of Labour. This system subjects trade unions to compulsory registration and grants legal status and the entitlement to exercise constitutional rights, such as collective bargaining, organisation of strikes, and protecting union representatives against anti-union measures, only to registered organisations. The establishment of the Registry severely hindered the functioning of trade union organisations and the exercise of their rights, as was observed by the Council of State, which ruled in 2022 (decision 2175/2022) that the suspension of these trade union rights in case of failure to properly register constituted a “manifestly disproportionate and particularly serious interference in the right to freedom of association”. The Council also took issue with the mandatory registration of sensitive personal data of trade union officials (elected or candidate), without their consent. The case is still pending before the Plenary Session of the Council of State.

In Belarus, the authorities stepped up their repression against trade unions when, on 18 July 2022, the Supreme Court decided to liquidate the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) and its affiliates, including the Free Trade Union of Metal Workers (SPM), the Free Trade Union of Belarus (SPB), the Belarusian Trade Union of Workers of the Radio-Electronic Industry (REP) and the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BITU).

Since April 2022, the Belarusian government has engaged in a systematic pattern of repression of the independent trade unions in the country, smearing independent unions and trade unionists as ‘extremists’ and ‘western agents’ and engaging in defamation campaigns, with a clear threat that anyone who associates with the BKDP and its affiliates risk being prosecuted.

In Serbia, workers’ access to courts and judicial recourse was severely impeded by the imposition of high legal fees and other expenses. Moreover, workers suffered from undue delays in the adjudication of labour disputes and had to resort to international mechanisms, such as the European Court of Human Rights, to seek justice.

Erzhan Elshibayev, a worker activist in Kazakhstan has been in prison for over two years. He was one of the organisers of the 2019 rallies in the town of Zhanaozen, a town located in the richest oil-bearing region of the country, to demand higher wages for local workers and the creation of jobs for the unemployed.

In October 2019, Elshibayev was sentenced to five years in prison on trumped-up charges. Allegedly, several years before, the activist assaulted an unknown person, inflicting bodily harm. Those charges were denounced by the international community as a form of persecution for his activism.

In North Macedonia, the demonstrations organised by the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Macedonia (KSS) in the spring of 2021 were unduly disrupted by police forces. KSS filed a report with the internal control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs containing evidence and recordings, but it was made clear to the union that no investigation into the matter would be initiated.

Five years following the 10 November 2018 attack on Dimitri Sinyavsky, the chair of the Karaganda Regional Branch of the Sectorial Union of Fuel and Energy Workers, there continues to be no progress in the investigation. An absence of effective investigations and judgements against parties guilty of violent attacks on trade unionists has reinforced the climate of insecurity for victims and impunity for perpetrators, which has been extremely damaging to the exercise of freedom of association rights in Kazakhstan.

In Belarus, following the illegitimate election in 2020, the Lukashenko regime intensified its repression of independent trade unions. In April 2022, the authorities launched a full-scale attack on all independent unions and arrested leaders and activists. More than 30 unionists were detained or had their freedom of movement restricted. On 27 December 2022, the chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP), Aliaksandr Yarashuk, was found guilty of “actions that grossly violate public order” and of “calling for measures aimed at harming national security”. After a show trial, he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. Yarashuk had been in custody since 19 April 2022 and had had no access to his family, colleagues or lawyers during his detention.

On 4 July 2022, eight leaders of the SES, the Trade Union of Public Employees in Health and Social Services, including their President Gönül Erden, stood trial on terrorism offences as a result of their union activities.

Evidence used against the union officials was that they had been organising public gatherings, handing out trade union materials and organising meetings between colleagues, which are all normal trade union activities.

The overall case was based on the testimony of an anonymous witness who has given evidence against at least 350 individuals. Much of the evidence was spurious at best, and cited Gönül Erden’s attendance as a guest at the UK-based trade union UNISON conference 2018 as evidence for the terrorism charges she faces.

Şebnem Korur-Fincancı, President of the Turkish Medical Association, was imprisoned on 27 October 2022 under Turkey’s Anti-Terror Law for “propagandising for a terrorist organisation” and “publicly degrading the Turkish Nation, the state of the Republic and its institutions” because of her comments in the media about the allegations that Turkey used chemical gases during its military operations in Iraq and for which she called for an independent investigation.

Five members of KESK, who tried to attend the Court Hearing as observers, were arrested but later released.

Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s office has also asked that Şebnem Korur-Fincancı be suspended from her duties. Removal from office would be a clear and unacceptable interference in the freedom of trade unions to organise their own activities and structures.

Şebnem Korur-Fincancı is a forensic expert with decades of experience in anti-torture work. She has been persecuted for her activism on multiple occasions and was previously arrested in 2016 for supporting a freedom of the press campaign.

On 26 February 2023, the Deputy General Secretary of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK), Fahrettin Engin Erdoğan, was among the union leaders and members detained at a protest in Istanbul.

The protest was organised by the DISK and the Confederation of Public Employees’ Trade Unions (KESK) over reports of corruption hampering efforts to help victims of the country’s recent earthquake.

Members of both unions were among more than 100 people detained.

In the early morning of 4 October 2022, four maintenance workers of the Réseau de Transport d’Electricité (RTE) were arrested in their homes by the DGSI (the French intelligence services) and held in custody in the premises of the DGSI in Levallois. The workers at RTE had been on strike for four months over low wages in the face of the rising inflation. At the end of July, their company filed a complaint for “malicious acts” and for “having disrupted the operations of the company”.

The Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) denounced these arrests and questioned the intervention in a labour dispute by intelligence services specialised in terrorism.

In Belarus, on 30 May 2022, Uladzimer Krysyonak, a trade union activist who took part in a major strike by workers at the Naftan oil-processing company in 2020, was found hanged at his home.

Police had questioned him a few days earlier with regard to an unspecified case. He was detained about a week before his death, before being released, with orders not to leave the city.

Uladzimer Krysyonak’s relatives and colleagues said police had threatened to send him to prison for 12 years. Uladzimer Krysyonak was an active participant in the 2020 strike in protest against the official results of the August presidential election that proclaimed authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko as the winner, amid opposition allegations that the vote was rigged. Krysyonak was also a candidate for the post of the chairman of an independent trade union in 2021.

Since April 2022, the Belarusian government has engaged in a systematic pattern of repression against the independent trade unions in the country, arbitrarily arresting and detaining trade union leaders and members, intimidating and harassing them. On 19 April 2022, more than twenty leaders and activists of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) were detained by the State Security Committee (KGB), including Aliaksandr Yarashuk, BKDP chairman. Repression continued as further targeted arrests were made in May, including Maksim Pazniakou, acting BKDP chairman, who was picked up by the state authorities on 17 May 2022.

Andrei Khanevich, chairperson of the primary trade union organization of the BNP at Grodno Azot was sentenced to a five-year imprisonment in November, while Aliaksandr Mishuk, BNP vice-chairperson and chairperson of the primary trade union organisation at Belaruskali, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.

On 27 December 2022, the Minsk City Court passed a verdict against the imprisoned BKDP leaders: chairman Aliaksandr Yarashuk was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, his deputy Sergei Antusevich to two years in prison, and BKDP accountant Irina But-Husaim to 18 months in prison. They were found guilty of actions that grossly violate public order and Yarashuk was also found guilty of calling for measures aimed at harming national security.

All three trade unionists had been in custody since 19 April 2022 and Aliaksandr Yarashuk has had no access to his family, colleagues or lawyers during his detention.

On 5 January 2023, the Minsk City Court passed a sentence on the leaders of the trade union of radio-electronic industry workers (REP): Hennadz Fiadynich was sentenced to nine years of reinforced regime imprisonment, Vasil Berasneu was sentenced to nine years in a medium security prison, while Vatslau Areshka was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in a general regime prison.

All were found guilty of calling for measures aimed at harming national security, incitement of other social hatred, and the creation of an extremist formation or participation in it.

Private school teachers gathered in Ankara, Turkey, on 30 August 2022 to protest low wages and poor working conditions. The demonstration was organised by the Private Sector Teachers’ Union, which has nearly 4,000 members in 60 provinces of the country.

The teachers attempted to march to the Ministry of National Education. Police surrounded and blocked them, and used pepper spray on the teachers when they insisted on marching. Seven people, including two lawyers, were detained during the incidents.

On 16 March 2023, President Emmanuel Macron moved to force through a new law on the national pension age without holding a vote in the French Parliament. The President resorted to the use of anti-democratic special constitutional powers (contained in article 49.3 of the French Constitution) to push forward his government’s plan to raise the retirement age of French citizens from 62 to 64. Macron’s decision to invoke this controversial constitutional tool was in direct response to the powerful and united labour movements. Millions of French people have forcefully affirmed their opposition to the legislation through weeks of demonstrations and strikes. These mass mobilisations were supported by a large majority of the population and almost all workers. However, the government responded by using illegal requisitions of staff in several sectors, while police forces brutally repressed peaceful demonstrations, using tear gas and batons to violently beat up protesters. Hundreds of people have been arbitrarily arrested in a clear attempt by the authorities to intimidate protestors from continuing to express their demands.

On 8 June 2021, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed legislation that punishes those accused of taking part in unauthorised demonstrations with imprisonment of up to three years. Those who are found to have participated in or to have promoted “extremist activity” would face up to six years in jail. The definition of “extremist activity” remains ill-defined in the new legislation, leading to fears that the new provisions would be used to suppress any dissent. This law follows others enacted on 24 May 2021, which make it compulsory to obtain a permit from the authorities to organise mass events and prohibit journalists from reporting live from such events. These legal provisions were still in effect in 2023.