Brazilian wineries involved in slave labor scandal
Brazil’s Federal Police along with the Ministry of Labor rescued more than 200 people who were living and working in slave-like conditions in Bento Gonçalves, a city in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, as per Brazil Reports.
The workers were employees of Fênix Serviços Administrativos e Apoio a Gestão de Saúde LTDA, a company that provided services to three traditional wineries in the region, including Salton, one of the biggest wine companies in Brazil.
Well-known wineries involved in alleged modern slavery scandal
Salton, as well as competitors Aurora and Garibaldi, have been exposed to be embroiled in an itself unprecedented scandal: The case came to light after three workers, kept in conditions similar to slavery, managed to escape from the lodge where they were being held. On the road, they found a Federal Highway Police station and asked for help.
The men told investigators they traveled from the state of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, to Rio Grande do Sul, on a 2,000-kilometer journey to work the grape harvest in Serra Gaúcha, the main wine-producing region in Brazil, as per Brazil Reports.
The men reported they had been promised a salary of R$ 4,000 (USD $768), as well as food and lodging, when they arrived in Rio Grande do Sul.
But the wine producers failed to live up to those promises.
According to the complaint, workers were forced to endure an exhausting workday that started at 5:00 AM and ended at 8:00 PM, from Sunday to Friday, with only Saturdays off.
In addition, the workers reported
- being monitored by armed security guards,
- suffering physical abuse from their bosses, and
- not receiving payment, as expenses for lodging and food were being deducted from their salaries.
- This caused the workers to be in debt to the company which was why they were not allowed to leave.
Following the complaints, Federal Police agents and representatives from the Ministry of Labor went to the company’s facilities in Bento Gonçalves and confirmed the situation. In total, 207 workers who were living in poor conditions were taken from their lodgings to a nearby gymnasium.
The three large wine producers that hired the services of the third-party company claimed they had always acted within the law and were not aware of what happened to the employees.
But alls for boycotts of the brands emerged, and the Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments (ApexBrasil) decided to suspend the three companies from their activities. The agency promotes Brazilian companies’ products and services abroad to attract investments and was part of the agency’s actions through the Wines of Brazil project, which presents the country’s wines at international fairs. Until the end of the investigation, the three wineries will no longer be part of the program.
Although the wineries benefited from the services provided by the rescued workers, they will likely not be criminally penalized, as the violations were made via the contractor. Criminal charges could only be brought against the wineries if it was proven that they were aware of or actively participated in the actions that resulted in slave-like labor.
Fênix Serviços Administrativos e Apoio a Gestão de Saúde LTDA, in charge of hiring the workforce and for whom the men actually worked, is being investigated for human trafficking and slave labor.