Brazil charges Volkswagen unit with treating farm workers like slaves decades ago
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Prosecutors alleged Volkswagen do Brasil committed human rights violations on a farm it owned from 1974 to 1986 in northern Brazil.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SAO PAULO – Brazilian labour prosecutors charged Volkswagen’s local unit with subjecting farm workers to conditions akin to slavery decades ago and are seeking 165 million reais (S$36.7 million) in damages, they said on Dec 5.
Volkswagen do Brasil (VW) said in a statement it had not been formally notified of the charges yet.
VW committed human rights violations on a farm it owned from 1974 to 1986 in northern Brazil, the prosecutors alleged. A labour judge will review the charges and decide whether the case against VW will move forward.
The Brazilian federal labour prosecutors started to investigate after reports by Mr Ricardo Rezende, a priest and a professor at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, in 2019 involved documents and testimonials by the farm workers.
The labour prosecutors found “serious violations of human rights” happened on the farm, with workers subjected to “slavery-like” conditions through exhausting working hours, degrading working conditions and debt bondage, prosecutor Rafael Rodrigues said in a statement.
The charges, which include the request for collective moral damages, follow failed talks with VW aimed at a settlement, the prosecutors said. They said the firm quit the negotiations in March 2023 and “showed no interest” in signing an agreement with them. REUTERS
