Forced labour of children, targeted attacks on workers and seized unions \u2013 Russia\u2019s abuses are well-documented and known by the UN labour agency. The ILO must now decide whether to live up to its mission or keep looking away from Ukraine, write Vasyl Andreyev and Luca Cirigliano, union members of the ILO\u2019s Governing Body.<\/p>\n
As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth freezing winter, Russian occupation forces continue to impose their rule of terror across illegally seized eastern and southern regions. There, Ukrainian workers and unions face repression, confiscation and coercion.<\/p>\n
The International Labour Organization\u2019s (ILO) Governing Body, which convenes from 17 to 27 November, is once again planning to discuss Russia\u2019s aggression. Yet, despite mounting evidence of systematic labour rights violations, the institutional response is beyond inadequate.<\/p>\n
The ILO cannot remain silent while its founding principles are trampled. Russia\u2019s violations in Ukraine are a threat to workers\u2019 rights everywhere. With the same resolve they once showed to past dictatorships, democratic powers and the global trade union movement must use the UN labour agency\u2019s oversight mechanisms to hold Putin\u2019s regime to account.<\/p>\n
Labour repression under occupation<\/strong><\/p>\n Reports from the UN human rights office<\/a>, the ILO<\/a>, the International Trade Union Confederation and Ukrainian unions<\/a> all describe a pattern of forced labour, suppression of free association and political indoctrination.<\/p>\n Workers are compelled to accept Russian labour law, re-register under occupation authorities or obtain Russian passports \u2013 or risk detention or dismissal. Teachers are banned from teaching Ukrainian history and language, and forced to use pro-Russian curricula. Union property and equipment have been confiscated and handed to Kremlin-backed structures.<\/p>\n These are not incidental wartime excesses but deliberate violations of core ILO conventions \u2013 29 on forced labour, 87 on freedom of association and 98 on the right to organise. Where unions are silenced, democratic life is extinguished.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s repression extends far beyond the workplace. Research by Yale University has identified<\/a> facilities, including a military base, where Ukrainian children abducted from occupied areas have been allegedly held and forced to assemble drones used to bomb their own families. Rescue workers have been deliberately targeted with so-called \u201cdouble-tap\u201d missile strikes. In 2023, in Pokrovsk<\/a>, two Iskander missiles hit residential buildings 40 minutes apart, killing civilians, rescue workers and soldiers.<\/p>\n Some workers have been personally targeted for their role. Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna went missing in 2023, and her dead body was returned by Moscow a little over a year later with clear signs of torture, while Ihor Murashov, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant\u2019s director, and his employees were interrogated and beaten for months as they were held hostage at the facility. These cases show that abuses are not only structural but also deeply personal.<\/p>\n These crimes and their scale reveal an intent to destroy Ukrainian society \u2013 all with the acquiescence of a complacent UN system. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) \u2013 a Kremlin proxy that holds a seat on the ILO\u2019s Governing Board \u2013\u00a0 has itself actively participated in seizing Ukrainian union premises and installing itself as their \u201creplacement\u201d. Its continued presence on the board is an affront to the institution\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n Responsibility lies not only with the Kremlin and its bureaucratic enablers but also with states that have abstained or voted against resolutions on Ukraine\u2019s protection \u2013 including Iran, Venezuela, Belarus and the US under Donald Trump, as well as BRICS members that pride themselves in being democracies, as they most recently did at the International Labour Conference in 2025. Their inaction enables Putin\u2019s attack on workers\u2019 rights and makes them complicit.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> US abstains from ILO vote on Ukraine war, breaking ranks with allies<\/a><\/p>\n Levers of pressure<\/strong><\/p>\n The ILO was created precisely to confront this kind of abuse. Its constitution offers concrete steps towards accountability when a member violates its principles.<\/p>\n State and trade union members can both submit complaints to the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations and the Committee on Freedom of Association. They can also request a commission of inquiry, the ILO\u2019s highest-level investigative procedure, reserved for the most serious and persistent breaches. If a country refuses to comply with its findings, the ILO may call <\/a>on fellow member states to take action.<\/p>\n These mechanisms are not theoretical \u2013 they have set historic precedents. South Africa was excluded in 1963 from certain trade committees over its apartheid and faced a unanimous condemnation at the International Labour Conference the following year. A 1998 forced labour complaint against Myanmar helped trigger international sanctions, while another case against Belarus in 2004 reaffirmed that repressing unions can lead to institutional censure.<\/p>\n The situation in occupied Ukraine clearly meets \u2013 and exceeds \u2013 this threshold.<\/p>\n The time for reports has passed<\/strong><\/p>\n Since 2022, the ILO governing body has heard regular reports on how Russia\u2019s war is affecting Ukrainian workers. While valuable, these updates are insufficient. The ILO has confined itself to little more than statements and observations, citing political complexity and limited jurisdiction over occupied territories. Yet the organisation\u2019s constitution makes no exception for political inconvenience.<\/p>\n Its supervisory system can \u2013 and must \u2013 address violations from member states in unlawfully occupied zones.<\/p>\n