Bills against slave labor stall in the Chamber – 7/2/2023 – Training

A block of bills on the fight against slave labor has been going through the National Congress for 18 years. Among them are proposals to increase penalties for employers and regulate the expropriation of land where work analogous to slavery is found. The block has been blocked since 2019. This year, 13 new texts were added to the set.

The projects are attached to PL 5016/2005, by former Senator Tasso Jereissati (PSDB-CE). In 2019, the Chamber of Deputies determined that a special commission be created to analyze the total number of suggestions, but so far this has not happened.

Attachment occurs when the Board of Directors understands that a new project is similar to an old one. From then on, the proposals are processed together. At the beginning of the year, there were 28 projects. Today, there are 41. This is the biggest increase in 18 years of processing.

Among the projects, there are those aimed at increasing penalties. This is the case of the block’s original project, PL 5016/2005.

Others regulate the expropriation of land where workers are found in this enslavement regime. Expropriation is guaranteed by article 243 of the Federal Constitution since 2014, when Constitutional Amendment 81 was approved, which, however, was not regulated.

“It wouldn’t need regulation. Article 243 is clear. But, as this has been used as an argument for expropriation not to occur, we created the project”, says congresswoman Fernanda Melchionna (PSOL-RS).

The deputy is one of the authors of PL 978/2023, which regulates the expropriation of land and makes responsible those who hire outsourced companies. “Our project innovates by offering the possibility of self-management of the land by the rescued workers”, she said.

The project is one of those attached to 5016/2005 between March and June of this year.

On the last 22nd, there was a public hearing to discuss PL 1102/23, by Deputy Reginete Bispo (PT-RS), at the Chamber’s Commission on Human Rights, Minorities and Racial Equality (CDHMIR). It is yet another text that deals with expropriation attached to the block.

For Melina Fiorini, prosecutor of the Public Labor Ministry of Minas Gerais (MPT-MG), this is one of the most important issues today. But, according to her, there are others that can hinder the fight against slave labor.

“Unfortunately, we perceive an attempt by some sectors to weaken this concept, to remove, for example, degrading work from the definition of slave labor”, says Fiorini.

PL 2464/2015, by Deputy Dilceu Sperafico (PP-PR), is one of those that seeks to change this definition. According to the text, the current definition of slave labor is subjective, as it includes concepts such as exhausting hours and degrading conditions. Sought, the deputy declined to comment.

In April, the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA) recommended a vote against PL 5970/2019, by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (non-AP party), which also aims to regulate land expropriation. The document, drawn up by the front’s technical team, says that there is no objective concept of slave labor in law.

“We at the FPA are against any type of crime, in any instance or sector. We defend the need to define the concepts precisely, through a broad debate and search for consensus, in order to guarantee the necessary legal security for the effective fight against crimes of this nature”, said deputy Evair de Melo (PP-ES), second vice-president of the FPA.

If approved in the Senate, Randolfe’s PL will go to the House. “I expect common sense from the two Houses in appreciating this matter. It is absurd that we still haven’t detailed the regulation”, says the senator.

In addition to expropriation, there are projects in the block that provide for the cancellation of the CNPJ (National Register of Legal Entities) of companies convicted of the crime of reduction to work analogous to slavery and others that prohibit tax benefits or tax incentives to convicted companies.

Two bills aim to turn crime into heinous. Deputy Amanda Gentil (PP-MA), author of one of them, collects signatures in Congress to create the Parliamentary Front for the Eradication of Work Analogous to Slavery.

It is necessary to exert external pressure before fighting for progress in the processing of projects, according to Melchionna.

“We are going to bring various movements and political actors to debate the set of projects”, he says. “In the Bolsonaro government, we almost had a setback, with those projects that aim to change the concept of what slave labor is. Now, there has to be progress.”