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Farmer who slept in chicken coop to be compensated for slave labor

The Board considered the seriousness of the working conditions faced by the employee.

From the Editors

 

Monday, December 2, 2024

 

Updated at 12:27

 

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TRT-15 ordered the employer to pay R$100,000 in moral and collective damages and recognized the employment relationship of a worker who was kept for years in conditions analogous to slavery, extending liability to the entire period of work.

 

Decision was based on evidence of degrading conditions faced by the worker.

 

 

TRT-15 recognizes slave labor and compensates worker with R$100,000 for individual and collective moral damages. 

Understand the case

 

The Public Ministry of Labor filed the public civil action after finding that the rural worker was subjected to degrading conditions similar to slavery on the farm.

 

According to the records, the victim worked, without pay, in agriculture and domestic work for eight years in exchange for housing and food. He lived in a barn that was also used as a chicken coop, consisting of a wooden shed built on a rustic cement floor, and slept with equipment, containers of pesticides and other chemical products, resin storage drums, sacks with agricultural products and several chickens, which were locked in the place, and the place was full of animal feces.

 

It was also found that the worker slept on an old mattress, without bedding, on a cold floor, in an environment with absolutely no living conditions, with a complete lack of hygiene and without a bathroom. It is also said that he suffered mistreatment, including a scar on his arm acquired with a machete in a fight with his employer.

 

Once the practice of contemporary slave labor was characterized, and the employee was already in a safe place, a meeting was held with the employer with a view to finding an administrative solution to regularize the facts in the labor sphere, with the signing of a conduct adjustment agreement, which did not prove viable, as the employer claimed not to have the conditions to register the employment contract or bear any type of payment, which signaled the need to file a public civil action.

 

The owner of the site defended himself, claiming that the facts discussed in this lawsuit never occurred, there is no work analogous to slavery or any violation of the national or international legal order, as the news/complaints taken to the police officers, the agents of the Ministry of Labor and the Public Ministry of Labor are absolutely false and motivated by the petty feelings of people who behave with the objective of causing him harm.

 

According to him, at no time was the real situation of the parties considered, and at no time did he act as if he were the employer of the alleged victim, nor did he present real elements that he had subjected anyone to slave labor and mistreatment .

 

In his defense, he claimed that his living conditions are absolutely precarious, being a simple person with little education, being on an equal footing with the alleged victim, never having taken advantage of his conditions, there not even being an employment relationship, as he only offered to help him and ended up being stabbed in the back with so many false accusations, which led the competent authorities to deceive.

 

TRT Decision

 

The rapporteur of the case, judge Andrea Guelfi Cunha, rejected the defense's argument, as she understood that it was uncontroversial in the case that services were provided for approximately 8 years, without due salary compensation, in exchange exclusively for housing and food.

 

It was also proven beyond doubt that the worker worked "under degrading conditions", even though the victim himself stated that he worked there because he wanted to and that he was never forced to stay there.

 

One of the employer's witnesses stated that the worker started living on the property at the request of his mother, as he regularly consumed alcohol, and that, as there was no place for the worker to live, the family asked the defendant to let him work on the farm.

 

Despite all this, even though the defendant is also a simple person and there is no evidence in the records that he acted premeditatedly and with the objective of inadvertently exploiting the workforce, but, on the contrary, that he complied with the request of the worker's family, the fact is that no one can exempt themselves from complying with the law, and the reasons why the legal relationship between the parties was established are irrelevant, stated the panel.

 

In this sense, the judgment concluded by recognizing, in this relationship, conditions analogous to slavery.

 

The panel  upheld the ruling handed down by the labor court of Capão Bonito/SP, as compensation for individual damages and collective damages totaling R$100,000.

 

It also dismissed the five-year limitation period pronounced by the first instance court, thus extending the sentence to the entire period of the recognized relationship.

 

Case : 0011285-64.2023.5.15.0123

 

 link: https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/420792/lavrador-que-dormia-em-galinheiro-sera-indenizado-por-trabalho-escravo