The pandemic has led to increased support for many types of basic social protection, according to a new ITUC-commissioned poll.

More than 12,000 people in ten countries were asked: “Thinking back to before the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020), do you think the following worker rights are more, or less, important now, or has there been no change?”:

• “the right to join a union”;
• “the right to a decent minimum wage”;
• “the right to strike”;
• “the right to collectively bargain”;
• “affordable access to healthcare”;
• “access to unemployment benefits”;
• “paid sick leave”.

The top three rights with the largest backing were affordable access to healthcare (58%), access to unemployment benefits (53%) and a decent minimum wage (51%).

If you include the number of people who believe these rights have always been important, the support rises to 82%, 77% and 79% respectively.