The most recent list of work analogous to slavery included 132 employers and excluded another 17, including individuals and companies. In the list updated by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, last Wednesday (5), there are 289 names, involved in closed processes, that is, in which there are no more resources for the parties.
The inclusion of employers caught in an illegal situation is foreseen in the Interministerial Ordinance No. 4, dated May 11, 2016, and made since 2003, being updated every semester. The names remain on the federal government register for two years.
The cases added to the list are from the periods 2018 to 2022. Most of them are from the state of Minas Gerais (35). In second, third and fourth place, appear Goiás (15), Piauí (13) and Pará (11). Eight cases from Maranhão, eight from Paraná, seven from Santa Catarina, seven from Bahia, six from Mato Grosso do Sul, six from Rio Grande do Sul, five from Mato Grosso, two from Pernambuco, two from the Federal District were included in the list. , two from São Paulo, one from Ceará, one from Rondônia, one from Roraima, one from Rio Grande do Norte and one from Tocantins.
From the update, it can be seen, therefore, that in 18 states and in the Federal District, inspection teams identified this type of human rights violation. As highlighted by the minister of the portfolio, Luiz Marinho, on the day of the release of the new list, only at the beginning of the year, more than 1,000 rescues of workers in this condition have already been carried out.
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 debt in cash.
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 (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 Public Ministry of Labor makes available, in its siteone channel for registering complaints crimes that violate the rights of workers. Notification can be made anonymously.
