"In the midst of the pandemic, Cutrale fires pregnant employees and suspends meal vouchers", 22 November 2021

...End of meal vouchers and paid commuting hours, lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), illegal searches, and pregnant women fired: working conditions among seasonal harvest employees at Cutrale – one of the world’s leading orange producers – get worse with each harvest, according to workers from the company’s farms heard by Repórter Brasil.

In 2020, Cutrale suspended meal vouchers, which provided a R$ 240.00 increase in orange pickers’ earnings. In addition, temporary employees hired to work from May to February are no longer paid for the time they spend traveling to and from the farms...

Contacted by Repórter Brasil, Cutrale did not comment on the problems reported by the workers...

While rights such as meal vouchers and paid commuting time ceased to be guaranteed after recent changes in Brazilian labour legislation, lack of PPE and toilets in the fields, and dismissal of female harvest workers after they report they are pregnant are still against the law...

The company has already been convicted for firing pregnant workers...

According to the workers heard by Repórter Brasil, at the end of each workday, farm supervisors inspect each worker’s belongings before the group boards the bus that will take them back home...

Weighing harvested oranges is another stressful situation reported by workers. Payment is calculated by bag picked – one bag is equivalent to 20 orange boxes. According to Daniel and Maria, group supervisors often receive the 20 boxes collected but count only 19 or 18...

Workers also point out that they are often forced to work in heavy rain or do overtime on Saturdays to meet production targets set by supervisors...