The Public Ministry of Labor in Minas Gerais (MPT-MG) released a report on actions to combat slave labor, implemented in 2021. According to the agency, inspection operations rescued more than 450 workers from this type of exploitation.
“Coffee, corn, garlic, charcoal production are some of the economic sectors that still perpetuate this form of exploitation. The exploitation of the elderly was among the flagrant operations throughout the year”, informed the MPT in a note alluding to January 28, the National Day to Combat Slave Labor.
According to the MPT, 2,810 inquiries were opened throughout the country throughout the year. 459 Public Civil Actions (ACP) were filed and 1,164 Conduct Adjustment Terms (TAC) were signed.
“In Minas Gerais, 173 investigative procedures were initiated on the subject and 56 TACs were signed,” the note details.
The agency recalls that, among the conditions that characterize “together or isolated” the “labor analogous to slavery” (as prescribed by Article 149 of the Brazilian Penal Code) are “degrading conditions, debt bondage, exhausting working hours and forced labor”.
“The degrading condition and the exhausting journey are the ones we most often encounter when we go to the field, however, unfortunately, cases of debt bondage and forced labor are still found”, informs labor prosecutor Mateus Biondi, from the National Eradication Coordination. of Slave Labor in Minas Gerais.
Historic
According to MPT-MG, 2021 started with 140 workers found in conditions similar to slaves in Brazil, 29 of them in Minas. One of them is a minor.
During Operation Rescue, more than 360 infraction notices were drawn up and another R$ 500 thousand were paid in severance pay to workers.
Operation Rescue then unfolded. In one of them, the owner of a pottery in Inhaúma was caught “submitting 11 workers to inadequate health and safety conditions in the work environment”.
In June, 84 workers sheltered in makeshift housing and without sanitary conditions were rescued from a corn field located in Paracatu.
According to the agents who participated in the inspection, these workers – recruited in the city of Porteirinha (North region of Minas Gerais) and in Maranhão – “did not have access to a place for meals and did their physiological needs in the bush due to lack of toilets”.
Also in June, four rural workers in conditions analogous to slavery were rescued on a farm located in the Minas Gerais city of Rio Vermelho. Among them were an 83-year-old woman who had worked on the property for more than 60 years without pay and no other labor rights, and a 49-year-old rural worker who had worked on the property for more than 30 years, under the same conditions.
“More than once, charcoal plants and coffee plantations in different parts of the state were caught submitting people to slave-like labor. During an operation carried out in July in the cities of Boa Esperança and Ilicínea, for example, teams from the MPT, the Labor Tax Audit (AFT) and the Federal Highway Police (PRF) rescued 63 employees.
According to inspectors, the largest group of people subjected to this form of exploitation was found during an operation in João Pinheiro and Coromandel, a region that encompasses Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba. In it, 130 workers were found, 116 in garlic production and 14 in two charcoal plants.
“In addition to degradation, absence of formal employment contracts, cases of grooming, we found situations in which the worker was paying for the work instrument, such as imported scissors used to harvest garlic and personal protective equipment, such as boots , glasses and clothes”, informed, in the note released by the MPT, the prosecutor Fabrício Borela Pena.
how to report
The MPT provides, in your sitean area dedicated to complaints about working in conditions similar to slavery.
The Ipê System is another channel dedicated to complaints of slave labor, made remotely and confidentially. To access it, click here.
