Between 1995 and 2005, almost 16,500 slave workers were liberated in Brazil.  In 2005 alone, there were 3,285 freed workers and 119 ranches inspected, 56 mobile group operations and R$ 6,257,566.40 (US$2,844,448.36) paid in fines.  Researchers on the issue and representatives of the Ministry of Labor agree that the National Plan for the eradication of Slave Labor— developed under Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government and launched under Lula’s government—was an advance in government policy against slave work. 

The National Plan for the Eradication of Slave Labor is three years old and will be reevaluated

Evanize Sydow[1]

Three years will have passed (on the 11th of March 2006) since the National Plan for the Eradication of Slave Labor was launched.  It was considered one of the principal goals of Lula’s government.  Among the measures that were to be adopted in the short term were:

1. The inclusion of the Zero Hunger Program in municipalities identified as the focus of illegal recruitment of workers used in slave labor;

2.  The practical identification of slave labor as a heinous crime;

3.  The expropriation of land where workers were submitted to conditions analogous to slavery;

4. Blocking employers who use slave or degraded labor from receiving rural credit.

Improving the structure of the Mobile Enforcement Group of the Labor Ministry and of police action by the Federal Public Ministry and the Public Labor Ministry were also priorities.  Other priorities included adopting measures against false agreements made by ‘gatos’ (ranchers’ agents), illegal transport of workers as well as the installation of jurisdiction headquarters of Labor Justice in the municipalities of São Felix de Xingu, Xinguara e Redenção—some of the areas of highest numbers of cases of slave laborResearchers on the issue and representatives of the Ministry of Labor agree that the National Plan for the eradication of Slave Labor—that was developed under Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government and launched under Lula’s government—was an advance in government policy against slave work. 

Father Ricardo Resende, who has researched modern slave labor for 20 years, considers the National Plan a very good result of a long discussion that began in 1992.  For him, the principal innovations of the initiative are the action of the Public Labor Ministry and the moral penalty represented in the “dirty list” of property owners that use slave labor. 

“The Public Ministry of Labor’s action in freezing the accounts of landowners who will not pay workers what they are due is one of the aspects that gives the plan its efficacy.  The Public Labor Ministry has asked to block accounts of non-complying ranchers and the Labor Justice has allowed them -- labor ministry agents now have access block the accounts immediately,” evaluates Ricardo Resende. 

With regard to moral penalties, the priest found that they are also very high, and in general these are paid.

The “dirty list” is another mechanism that Resende sees as effective.  This is because, besides simply constraining landowners, it prevents employers who use slave labor from using public financing.  Currently, the list has 188 properties listed with names and government identification numbers.  Despite some lawsuits alleging arbitrariness in the list—“their argument is that those who accuse are also those who judge and for this reason they think the group should be split into three parts formed by the government, landowners and workers”—the Labor Ministry has maintained the list.

The primary delay in the National Plan for the Eradication of Slave Labor that Resende points out is that the Constitutional Amendment for the expropriation of land where slave labor is used was not approved. The coordinator of the Special Mobile Enforcement Group, Marcelo Gonçalves Campos, shares this opinion.  For him the role of the judiciary is another problem.  “The decisions of the Judiciary are still conservative, primarily regarding punishment,” he evaluates.

However, Marcelo Campos considers the plan to be an essential commitment that guarantees a larger public profile for the problem of slave labor exploitation.  The primary actions he affirms were in the area of inspection and increasing the work capacity of the enforcement teams.  In 2003, there were three enforcement teams.  Now, there are seven directly linked to the Secretary of Inspection of Labor and other special teams have been formed in states like Mato Grosso, Goiás, Rondônia, Acre, Tocantins, Bahia, Pará and Maranhão that help with the enforcement of the Mobile Group   The coordination of the Labor Ministry with the Public Ministry of Labor is a positive point. 

Increasing daily wages of enforcement support staff was another problem resolved in 2005. Before, the Ministry of Labor paid approximately R$ 60.00 (US$27.27) for expense including lodging and food. Currently the value is R$ 105.00 (US$47.73), changing if the enforcement personnel were in capital cities.

By the end of 2005, there will have been a meeting of the organizations that help elaborate the National Plan for the Eradication of Slave Labor – under the auspices of the National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor (CONATRAE) – to reevaluate the document, verifying which goals should in fact be advanced and which prove inadequate in solving the problem.

From 1995 until November 2005 approximately 16,500 slave laborers were freed in Brazil. In 2005 alone, 3,285 slaves were freed, 119 ranches audited, there were 56 operations by the Mobile Group and R$ 6,257,566.40 (US$2,844,448.36) was paid in fines.