Volkswagen's Brasil Unit To Pay $30 Million Compensation For "Slavery" In The Amazon

Volkswagen’s Brazil Unit to Pay $30 Million Compensation for ‘Slavery’ in the Amazon Brazil Brazil’s labor court this month ordered Volkswagen to pay about $30 million in collective “moral” damages for subjecting workers to slavery-like conditions at a company-owned farm in the Amazon during the 1970s and 1980s, the Associated Press reported. The court found that hundreds of workers at a farm in Para state were forced into degrading work conditions. The farm, owned by Volkswagen through a subsidiary, was used for cattle ranching and logging. In his ruling issued last week, Judge Otavio Bruno da Silva Ferreira said evidence confirmed the farm belonged to Volkswagen and that conditions met the legal definition of slave labor. “Slavery is a ‘present past,’ because its marks remain in Brazilian society, especially in labor relations,” Ferreira wrote, adding that the legacy of Brazil’s colonial slave system continues to shape society today. According to the court, around 300 workers were employed in irregular contracts to clear the forest and prepare pastures. They lived in precarious conditions under armed surveillance, were not fed properly, and were forced to remain on the farm under a system of debt bondage. They also had no access to medical assistance, even when affected by diseases such as malaria. Volkswagen’s cattle ranching and logging operations in the Amazon at the time benefited from government incentives under Brazil’s military dictatorship, which was part of a bigger state plan to develop the region, Reuters wrote. The case arose in 2019 after the country’s Labor Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation when a local priest provided decades of extensive documentation on the case. Prosecutors formally charged Volkswagen in 2024. The court’s ruling followed failed talks to settle with Volkswagen’s Brazil unit, with prosecutors saying the company “showed no interest” in negotiations. Prosecutors argued that the company has to publicly admit its responsibility in the case and issue a formal apology, while also implementing a “zero-tolerance” policy for slave-labor conditions. In a statement, Volkswagen said it defends human dignity and strictly follows all relevant labor laws and regulations. The automaker announced it would appeal the decision. Prosecutors said this is the largest reparation of its kind in Brazil’s history, which abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Western Hemisphere to do so.