Brazil fines three wineries for using slave labor
Three of the most well-known wineries in the country—Aurora, Garibaldi, and Salton—will have to pay a 1.3 million dollar penalty for keeping 207 workers on their property in slave-like conditions
Yesterday, the Public Ministry of Labor made this announcement along with the news that it had achieved a settlement with the wineries that established several duties and payments for "individual and collective moral damages." Two hundred seven people aged between 18 and 57 were saved on February 22 due to a joint operation between the Public Ministry of Labor and the Police in the municipality of Bento Gonçalves in the south of the nation. The majority of the workforce was from the state of Bahia. Nonetheless, a group of employees managed to flee and inform the authorities, which is how the complaint was made. They claimed they had been promised a salary of 3,000 reais, or roughly $600, plus bed and board, but the reality they encountered was very different. They experienced long, exhausting shifts, food that was "unfit for human consumption," "awful circumstances" for sleeping, and "physical and psychological aggression," including beatings and threats of death from security guards.