The Labor Tax Audit rescued 67 workers subjected to conditions similar to slavery in a sugar cane factory in Cabo Frio, in the Lagos Region. The operation began on Monday (28) and identified working hours of 12 to 15 hours a day, degrading accommodation and contracts registered in the name of intermediaries without the financial capacity to act as employers.
The workers came from the Northeast and Minas Gerais and have been working in manual crop cutting since June. They were recruited with a promise of accommodation in the city and payment of more than $1 per tonne cut, but were paid less than agreed and late.
The 67 contracts were terminated and the severance funds totaled about $335,000. The plant paid for the group's return to the states of origin, which began to receive social and psychological monitoring.
