This year, throughout Brazil, authorities rescued 523 victims of work analogous to slavery. The information was passed on this Tuesday (7), by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, to Agência Brasil. In the state of São Paulo, the first case of the year, still under investigation, was registered on January 26. According to the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT), 32 workers in the sugarcane production chain were located in this condition. The rescue took place as part of a joint operation by the MPT, the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) and the Federal Highway Police. The victims were recruited by two men, known as “gatos”, in the municipalities of Francisco Badaró, Minas Novas, Turmalina, Jenipapo de Minas and Berilo, in Minas Gerais, to work in Pirangi, in northwest São Paulo. The workers’ accommodation, however, was in a neighboring municipality, Palmares Paulista, 20 minutes from Pirangi. The accommodation was made in houses and a commercial room, where a butcher shop used to operate, which had “poor hygiene and comfort conditions”, as detailed by the MPT. “In the accommodations there were old mattresses, torn linings, old stoves and refrigerators, bathrooms in precarious conditions of hygiene and exposed electrical installations”, adds the agency. The “cats” charged each worker BRL 320 to transport them to the lodging, clandestinely, in two vans. The victims told the authorities that they could not afford their own food and that they depended on them to buy products at a market. The debts in the establishment became one more factor to harm the workers. Due to the rains, the victims stayed nine days without work and, therefore, without receiving any payment. Employers entered into a conduct adjustment term (TAC) with the MPT and the DPU, which obliged them, among other things, to pay the severance pay due to those rescued, in addition to covering the costs of food and return tickets for workers to the their cities of origin. The fines established in case of non-compliance ranged from R$1,000 to R$5,000 per worker. What is work analogous to slavery? Current Brazilian legislation classifies as work analogous to slavery all forced activity – when a person is prevented from leaving their workplace – carried out under degrading conditions or exhausting hours. Any case in which the employee is constantly, ostensibly, watched by his boss is also liable to be reported. According to the National Coordination for the Eradication of Slave Labor (Conaete), an exhausting journey is any workload that, due to circumstances of intensity, frequency or exhaustion, causes damage to the physical or mental health of the worker, who, being vulnerable, has his or her will annulled and his dignity affected. Degrading working conditions, on the other hand, are those in which contempt for the dignity of the human person is established by the violation of the worker’s fundamental rights, in particular those referring to hygiene, health, safety, housing, food, rest or others related to the rights of the worker. personality. Another form of contemporary slavery recognized in Brazil is debt bondage, which occurs when the employee is restricted from traveling by the employer, on the grounds that he must settle a certain amount of money. A report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Walk Free and the International Organization for Migration, released in September 2022, highlights that, worldwide, around 28 million people were victims of forced labor in 2021. most cases of forced labor (86%) occur in the private sector, and almost one in eight people who were subjected to this type of violation are children (3.3 million). The MPT provides, on its website, a channel for registering complaints of crimes that violate the rights of workers. Notification can be made anonymously.
Agência Brasil
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