Lollapalooza has a new case of work analogous to slavery – 03/23/2023 – Market

An inspection carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) at the premises of Lollapalooza, a music festival that takes place between Friday (24) and Sunday (26) in São Paulo, claims to have caught workers in degrading conditions.

Five men who worked for a service provider at the festival told labor inspectors on Tuesday (21) that they were sleeping among bales of drinks, on pallets and mattresses, in tents set up inside the Lollapalooza complex at the Interlagos Racetrack, in the zone south of the capital of São Paulo. The vigil would be necessary to guarantee the safety of the goods.

The event producer T4F, organizer of the festival, said in a note that it requires all service providers to guarantee working conditions for their employees and that it ended the contract with the outsourced company.

According to the MTE, these workers were not registered – during the inspection, a representative of the service provider presented the contracts, but said that they had not yet been launched in the eSocial system.

Part of those rescued started working on the 16th, another on the 17th. Since then, according to what they told the inspectors, they had not been able to return home and had taken a shower in a house rented by the outsourced company, which would be responsible for distributing the drinks that would be sold in the three days of festival.

Due to the conditions considered degrading and the difficulties imposed for the workers to return home daily, the inspection considered that there was a situation of work analogous to slavery. They told the supervisor that they heard from employees that if they returned home, they would not have to go back to work, as they would be replaced.

The men also stated that the workday was about 12 hours a day. They would receive BRL 130 per day of work and would continue working during the disassembly of the event, until the 29th.

On the same day they were located, they signed the contract termination terms with the outsourced company and will receive severance pay of around R$10,000 each. They will also be entitled to unemployment insurance paid to workers found in a situation similar to that of a slave.

The inspection on Tuesday was the fourth carried out by the Regional Superintendence of Labor in São Paulo since the beginning of the assembly of the structure of the festival, in early March. The inspection was routine.

Labor inspector Rafael Brisque Neiva, one of those responsible for supervising large events, says that the inspectors have been meeting with T4F for at least six months to advise on the legality of hiring and subcontracting for the organization of the event.

Lollapalooza has already had cases of work analogous to slavery in other editions, such as in 2019, when people in social vulnerability were hired to assemble and disassemble event structures for R$50, in 12-hour shifts.

“We had been warning about what they [T4F] should charge providers, the importance of barring problems such as informality and long hours, which are common in events of this type”, said the inspector to the Sheet.

In 2018, Pastoral do Povo de Rua called the MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho) so that two companies carrying the festival could be investigated. The complaint dealt with the use of labor from homeless people in the assembly of structures, reporting a lack of registration and the absence of bathrooms, but it was filed because the prosecutor understood that the matter should be referred to a supervisory body, such as the extinct Ministry of Work.

The workers rescued last week by the labor tax audit were between 20 and 30 years old and lived in the south zone of São Paulo, in a neighborhood close to the Lollapalooza venue.

The inspection action considered T4F and the service provider responsible for the conditions of the workers. In addition to the immediate collection of labor funds, companies are now administratively liable for infractions and may even be prosecuted by the Public Ministry of Labor.

According to the inspection, the company that would handle the distribution of drinks during the three days of the event would hire around 800 workers to serve and supply the points of sale. The Lollapalooza organizer said that it has already replaced the bar service, which should work normally for the three days of the event.

Full text of the T4F note:

To hold an event the size of Lollapalooza Brasil, which occupies 600,000 square meters at the Interlagos Circuit and is estimated to receive an audience of 100,000 people per day, the event has teams that work on different work fronts, in departments ranging from communication to food and beverage operation, from setting up the stages to cleaning the space and security. There are more than 9,000 people who work directly at the venue and more than 170 service providers are hired.

T4F, responsible for organizing Lollapalooza Brasil, has as a priority that all people involved in the event have the proper working conditions guaranteed and, therefore, requires that all service providers do the same.

This week, during an inspection by the Ministry of Labor at the Interlagos Speedway, 5 professionals from Yellow Stripe (a third-party company responsible for operating the bars at Lollapalooza Brasil) were identified, who, in the auditors’ view, would fit into work analogous to slavery. They worked for 5 days inside the Interlagos Racetrack and, as verified by the auditors, slept in the workplace, something that is strictly prohibited by T4F.

Faced with this finding, T4F immediately terminated the legal relationship established with Yellow Stripe and made sure that all the rights of the 5 workers involved were guaranteed in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Labor auditors. T4F considers this to be an isolated fact, vehemently repudiates it and will continue to take a strong stance in the face of any non-compliance with rules by outsourced companies.