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Article

29 Sep 2015

Author:
Matt Sandy, Al Jazeera America (US)

Brazil: Workers rescued from forced labour conditions were subcontracted by Ouro Verde; prosecutors considered Vale responsible

“Mining misery in Brazil-Subcontracting slavery: How big companies in Brazil get away with it”, 12 September, 2015

...Brazil’s Congress...is drafting a law that could narrow the definition of slavery and curtail the power of inspectors. Another new law would allow large companies to outsource any of their activities to third parties...[F]irms already use outsourcing to limit their liability to accusation of slavery...[In December the Supreme Court ruled that the Ministry of Labour should suspend the Dirty List of firms found to be using forced labour]...In February,...the Ministry of Labor raided the...[Mina do Pico]...with Federal Police officers and found that 309 drivers,...employed by a subcontractor to drive trucks between two Vale excavations, were being kept in conditions analogous to slavery...Officials accused the company of keeping the workers in degrading conditions, with feces scattered on the floor of the bathrooms, meaning the drivers had to go to the toilet on the roadside and could not change their filthy clothes after work...“...[W]orkers were...subjected to exhausting journeys...and...victims of fraud, false promises and threats,” it said...[The rescued workers were employed by a different company, Ouro Verde. Vale]...was held responsible and...signed an agreement with prosecutors to improve workers’ conditions...[It]...said it challenged the findings of the inspectors and was awaiting a court judgment...[:]...“Vale repudiates any form of disrespect for human rights and decent working conditions,”...Ouro Verde signed a similar agreement but did not respond to a request for comment...Vale...added, “...[A]ll employees of Ouro Verde were properly registered, were paid their wages on time, operated trucks equipped with air conditioning to protect them from dust and heat and commuted from their homes every day in a safe and proper manner.”...The Vale case illustrates the battle over whether firms may outsource their work to third parties...says Leonardo Sakamoto,...[from]...Repórter Brasil...

[It refers to Araguaia Destillery and Odebrecht]