SAO PAULO (AP) -- Brazil's labor court on Friday ordered Volkswagen to pay 165 million reais (about $30 million) for collective moral damages after workers were subjected to slave-like conditions at a company-owned farm in the Amazon during the 1970s and 1980s. Prosecutors said it is the largest such reparation in the country's history.
The Labor Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation in 2019 after obtaining extensive documentation from a local priest who had tracked the case for decades. Following further inquiries and witness testimony, prosecutors formally charged Volkswagen in 2024.
The court accepted the charges that hundreds of workers were subjected to degrading conditions between 1974 and 1986 at a farm in Para state, owned by Volkswagen through a subsidiary. The farm was used for cattle ranching and logging.
According to court filings, about 300 workers were hired under irregular contracts to clear the forest and prepare pastures. They were monitored by armed guards, lived in precarious housing, received insufficient food and were forced to stay on the farm under a system of debt bondage. No medical care was provided, even to those who contracted malaria.
"These practices constituted one of the largest cases of slave labor exploitation in Brazil's recent history," the Labor Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
In his ruling, 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. He added that the legacy of Brazil's colonial slave system continues to shape social structures and that recovering this memory is essential to understanding current realities and guiding antidiscrimination judgments.
Volkswagen's Brazilian headquarters said in a statement it will appeal the decision. The company said that in its 72 years of operation in Brazil, it has "consistently defended the principles of human dignity and strictly complied with all applicable labor laws and regulations."
"Volkswagen reaffirms its unwavering commitment to social responsibility, which is intrinsically linked to its conduct as a legal entity and employer," the company said.
Brazil enslaved more people from Africa than any other country, according to estimates from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database. It was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888.
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