MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Volkswagen found guilty of slave-like labor exploitation

Volkswagen will have to pay compensation and offer a public apology, among other measures

Carmaker Volkswagen was found accountable for the exploitation of labor analogous to slavery between 1974 and 1986 at the Vale do Rio Cristalino farm, also known as the Volkswagen Farm, located in Santana do Araguaia, in the Brazilian State of Pará.

The German-owned company will have to pay R$165 million (around US$30.38 million) in compensation for collective moral damages. The money will be wired to the State Fund for the Promotion of Decent Work and the Eradication of Slave-like Conditions in Pará (Funtrad/PA).

“The evidence in the case shows that Volkswagen do Brasil not only invested in Companhia Vale do Rio Cristalino, but also actively participated in its strategic management, benefiting directly from the illegal exploitation of labor,” explained Judge Otavio Bruno da Silva Ferreira, of the Labor Court of Redenção (PA).

In the decision, the magistrate further described that “official reports, worker testimonies, and documents from public agencies show that the production model adopted included practices of debt bondage, violence, and submission to degrading conditions, constituting the core of contemporary slave labor.”

The Labor Ministry said in a statement that hundreds of workers at the Vale do Rio Cristalino Farm were subjected to degrading conditions, with armed surveillance, precarious housing, insufficient food, debt bondage, and lack of medical care, especially for those affected by malaria.

The court's decision was prompted by a public civil action filed by the Ministry in December 2024, based on complaints from the Pastoral Land Commission, presented in 2019 by Father Ricardo Rezende Figueira, who gathered documentation on situations of workers being subjected to degrading working conditions on Volkswagen's property.

The Ministry gained access to court cases, police investigations, and certificates and statements made in a notary's office that prove the occurrence of the reported facts.

In addition to the compensation, Volkswagen must “publicly acknowledge its responsibility” and “apologize” to the affected workers and to society as a whole.

The company will also have to adopt a “Human Rights and Decent Work Policy”; include specific clauses in all contracts with suppliers prohibiting practices analogous to slavery; allow independent audits of its contractual relationships, among other measures.

Volkswagen's agricultural venture received public funding from the Amazon Development Authority (Sudam) during the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985).

In 2020, the German multinational signed a legal agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office, a Conduct Adjustment Agreement (TAC), acknowledging its role in supporting the military dictatorship and human rights violations.

Volkswagen has been operating in Brazil since the 1950s, a period of national industrialization and the beginning of vehicle production in the country. (Source: Agência Brasil)