The São Paulo Labor Court condemned a couple to pay R$800,000 to a domestic worker who was kept for 30 years in a work regime similar to slavery, without receiving any type of remuneration. There is still an appeal.
The amount of compensation corresponds to wages not paid during all this time, as well as other labor sums, severance pay, pain and suffering and collective damages. The decision was handed down at the 30th Labor Court of São Paulo by Judge Maria Fernanda Zipinotti Duarte.
According to the victim, she was sought out at the shelter where she lived to work as a housekeeper and take care of the couple’s young son, in exchange for a minimum wage per month. However, she has demonstrated that she has never been paid, nor had vacations or rest periods for the last three decades. The workday started at 6:00 am and she still completed tasks until after 11:00 pm every day.
The action was filed by the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT), based on a complaint made by the Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance (Creas-Mooca) after a request for help made by the maid, now elderly, to another assistance entity of the city hall from Sao Paulo.
“A first attempt to receive aid took place in 2014 at the same institution. At the time, there was a conversation with the couple and it was agreed that they would register the victim’s employment relationship and pay the labor credits owed, which was never fulfilled “, informed the Regional Labor Court of the 2nd Region (TRT2), in a note .
In her defense, the couple claimed that the process would be an “exaggeration”, since they provided a familiar and welcoming environment during all these years, giving her dignity and affection when removing her from a street situation. They also maintained that the victim had complete freedom to come and go, but rarely left the house by choice. They also said that they provided everything she needed, such as a house, food, clothes, shoes and money for cigarettes and biscuits.
“Work in a condition analogous to slavery takes on one of its cruelest faces when it comes to domestic work. Obviously, the worker without salary for more than 30 years does not have full freedom to come and go. She is unable to break the abusive relationship of exploitation of her work, since she lacks the minimum subsistence conditions far from her employers’ residence, without the means to determine the course of her own life, “wrote the judge in the decision in which she condemned the couple .
The magistrate ordered the couple to register the entire period worked in the employee’s work permit – from January 1989 to July 2022 -, with a monthly salary of R$ 1,284.00, the minimum wage at the time of interruption of work. It established a fine of R$ 50,000 per day in case of non-compliance.
