Work analogous to slavery: teenagers are rescued – 03/11/2023 – Market

A joint operation on Friday afternoon (10) rescued 56 workers who were allegedly subjected to conditions analogous to slavery on two rice farms in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul.

The case occurred in the municipality of Uruguaiana (about 630 km from Porto Alegre), on the border with Argentina.

The rescued group was made up of men and had ten teenagers aged between 14 and 17 years old, according to the PF (Federal Police) and the MPT-RS (Ministério Público do Trabalho do Rio Grande do Sul). The two bodies acted in the rescue action.

In the final stretch of February, Rio Grande do Sul recorded another case of work considered analogous to slavery. On that occasion, an operation rescued people hired to harvest grapes in Bento Gonçalves (about 120 km from Porto Alegre), in the Serra Gaúcha region.

According to the PF and the MPT-RS, the workers found this Friday in Uruguaiana were manually cutting red rice and applying pesticides without protective equipment.

Also according to the bodies, they even walked for strenuous journeys before reaching the workplace.

“The operation was carried out at the Santa Adelaide and São Joaquim estates, in Uruguaiana, after a complaint reported the presence of young people on the property, working illegally and without a formal contract. The mobile inspection group went to the location and found not only the teenagers , but adult workers in a situation analogous to slavery”, stated the MPT-RS.

A Sheet was unable to contact the farms mentioned by the agency until the publication of this text.

The workers were from the same region, from the municipalities of Itaqui, São Borja, Alegrete and Uruguaiana. They would have been recruited by a “gato”, as the labor agent is called, who worked on the western border of the state.

The MPT-RS and the PF stated that the group manually cut the red rice with “completely inappropriate” instruments. Some of those rescued would be using only domestic serrated knives, in addition to applying pesticides with their hands.

“On one of the properties, poison was applied using the bar method, in which two workers apply the pesticide using a perforated metal bar connected to cans of the product – a type of activity that requires individual protection equipment”, stated the PF .

The bodies involved in the operation also said that workers often had to walk 50 minutes in the sun to reach the performance site.

Those rescued stated that they received R$100 per day, but that food and work tools were paid for by the group.

“Under these conditions, the food was constantly spoiling and the workers didn’t eat anything the whole day. If any of them got sick, they would have their wages deducted”, said the PF.

The man appointed as responsible for the illicit agency was arrested in flagrante delicto for being reduced to a condition analogous to that of a slave and taken to the Federal Police.

Workers must immediately receive three installments of unemployment insurance. Employers, in turn, must be notified to sign the rescued work card and pay the severance pay.

The MPT will then claim compensation payments for individual and collective moral damages. Workers were sent to their homes.

According to labor inspection data, this is the largest rescue ever recorded in Uruguaiana.