Camaçari, Bahia (Reuters) – Workers who traveled from China to Brazil to build the new Byd factory in Camaçari, Bahia, earned about $ 70 per turn of 10 hours, more than double the Chinese minimum wage by time in various regions. For many, this made the candidacy an easy decision, which later proved much harder to reverse.
Chinese workers hired by Jinjiang, service provider for BYD in Brazil, had to deliver their passports to the new employer, let most salaries be sent directly to China and disburse a bond of almost $ 900 that could only Be rescued after six months of work, according to an employment contract seen by Reuters.
The three -page document, signed by one of 163 workers released from “slavery -like conditions” by labor tax auditors last month, includes clauses that violate labor laws in Brazil and China, according to Brazilian investigators and three labor legislation experts Chinese.
Other previously not reported clauses gave the company the power to unilaterally extend the employment contract for six months and apply fines of 200 iuanes by cursing, discussions or other conduct, such as shirtless work or accommodation.
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Many of the clauses “are classics ‘warning signs’ of forced labor,” said Aaron Halegua, a lawyer and researcher at the University of New York Law School, who obtained compensation for Chinese workers who processed their employers for forced labor on the Marian Islands of the Marian islands of North, a territory of the United States.
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He added that retaining workers’ passports or demanding any type of security or security payment would not be allowed by Chinese laws and regulations.
Jinjiang, which works in the construction of BYD factories in various cities in China, such as Changzhou, Yangzhou and Hefei, has contested the allegations, stating that the conclusions of Brazilian tax auditors are inconsistent with the facts and the result of wrong translations.
“The claim that Jinjiang employees were ‘enslaved’ and ‘rescued’ is totally wrong,” Jinjiang told a statement last month.
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Alexandre Baldy, a senior vice president of Byd Brasil, told Reuters that the automaker was unaware of any irregularity until the end of November, when the first report in the press about the case came up, and that contacted Jinjiang to question the allegations.
Baldy and BYD president in Brazil, Tyler Li, met on December 2 with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. At the time, they informed Lula that BYD was dealing with the issue, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
Lula’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Two weeks later, an operation of labor fiscal auditors found workers living piled up with no matters. Thirty -one workers lived tight in a single house, with only one bathroom and food stacked on the floor next to personal belongings, under conditions that the auditors described as “degrading.”
Baldy denied discussing the issue with Lula at his meeting and said the company was unaware of Jinjiang’s employment contract. BYD is taking action to ensure that “this situation does not repeat itself,” he told Reuters.
The auditors did not provide any evidence that BYD was aware of the violations, but the automaker is “directly responsible,” said Matheus Viana, interim chief of the Slave Labor Eradication Division (Detrae), because the company is responsible for the actions of an outsourced contractor in its facilities.
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Replacing Ford
The previously released contract offers new details on how a factory, considered a symbol of the narrowing of Brazil-China relationships, has become the epicenter of a BYD scandal in its largest market outside China.
Byd agreed in late 2023 to take over and invest heavily in the production of electric vehicles in a Camaçari industrial park in Bahia, where for two decades a Ford Motor factory worked.
Ford abandoned the unit in 2021, firing about 5,000 workers by ending production in the country.
For Lula, former leader of the ABC Metalworkers Union, in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, the agreement with BYD promised to generate 21st century industrial jobs in a petista stronghold.
The news of the great investment fed hope that the Chinese company would bring back twice as much jobs that Ford has eliminated in a state where almost 10% of people are unemployed.
But when BYD hired a Chinese contractor to build the factory, Antonio Ubirajara Santos Souza, general coordinator of the Civil Construction Workers Union, Camaçari and Region Industrial Maintenance (SindticCC), said it was a sign that the company “ did not play clean. ”
In a statement sent to Reuters, BYD said the company is committed to generating local jobs and that when the manufacturing complex is in full operation, it will have 20,000 workers, including Brazilians.
During the December operation, the inspectors found copies of 10 contracts with clauses similar to those seen by Reuters, they said. Some workers told auditors that they had no contracts, and others said they only signed their roles after months in Brazil.
BYD and Jinjiang will be accused of embarking on the investigation because, when requested, they did not provide the auditors the address of workers housing, Daniel Santana, the Labor Tax Auditor investigating the case. The prosecution exposes the two companies to a possible fine.
Research stirs residents of the region
Hundreds of Chinese workers are still working at the construction site with Brazilians, union leaders told Reuters. Union representatives claim that Brazilian employees complained this month of irregularities on site, including lack of drinking water.
BYD shared with Reuters photos of the new accommodation and cafeterias it has made available to employees. Even so, the SindticCCCCCC has decided to sue both BYD and Jinjiang for previous violations.
Local politicians also raised concerns about other projects in Bahia expected to be built by Chinese companies, such as a bridge in Salvador budgeted at 7.6 billion reais, which some residents fear that it can be the latest in a series of projects dependent on the foreign labor.
“We can never bring development to a state at the expense of slave work,” said state deputy Alan Sanches (União Brasil).
The governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), told Reuters that BYD should still create 10,000 local jobs and that the state cannot “miss this opportunity,” but that the automaker needs to provide work in decent conditions.
Júlio Bonfim, president of the Camaçari Metalworkers Union, said he has warned BYD representatives that the entity will not accept that Brazilians lose employment opportunities for workers brought from China.
If this happens, he said, “the factory will have Byd’s first strike even before the beginning of production.”
(Report by Fabio Teixeira in Camaçari, Luciana Magalhães in São Paulo and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Additional Reporting of Ricardo Brito in Brasilia and James Pomfret in Hong Kong)
