Brazil ended 2019 with 1,054 people rescued from situations analogous to slave labor, a result of inspections of 267 establishments. The data is in the latest update from the Radar of the Subsecretariat of Labor Inspection (SIT) of the Special Secretariat for Social Security and Labor of the Ministry of Economy.
In total, the existence of work analogous to slavery was characterized in 111 establishments. As a direct result, the rescued workers received a total of R$ 4 million in salary and severance payments, and 915 employment contracts were regularized.
The release of the updated data for 2019 took place in January to mark the National Day for the Fight Against Slave Labor (January 28). Established by Law No. 12,064, of October 29, 2009, the date honors the labor auditors Erastóstenes de Almeida Gonçalves, João Batista Soares Lage, and Nelson José da Silva, as well as the driver Ailton Pereira de Oliveira, who were killed on January 28, 2004, while traveling to inspect farms in the Unaí (MG) region, an episode known as the “Unaí Massacre.”
Plan
The Multiannual Plan (PPA 2016-2019) aimed to increase planned labor inspection actions to combat work analogous to slavery by 20%, especially in the isolated areas of the country.
According to the head of the Division of Inspection for the Eradication of Slave Labor (Detrae), labor auditor Maurício Krepsky, achieving the goal required implementing a plan based on fiscal intelligence information. “In 2019, a labor auditor worked exclusively to plan operations of this size, which was decisive for reaching the goal. Our objective for 2020 is to use a doctrine of fiscal intelligence and train other auditors,” he stated.
However, the number of rescues was lower than the previous year. In 2018, in a single fiscal action that investigated a sect suspected of keeping workers in conditions analogous to slavery, 565 workers were found in that situation, an atypical result for a single inspection.
States
Minas Gerais was the most inspected state (45 fiscal actions) and where the most workers in conditions analogous to slavery were found (468). São Paulo and Pará each had 25 fiscal actions, with 91 workers rescued in São Paulo and 66 in Pará.
Source: Special Secretariat for Social Security and Labor, Ministry of Economy