Brazilian company fined $2.85 mln for slave labor
BRASILIA. August 19. KAZINFORM Brazil's Superior Labor Court (TST) Wednesday imposed a 2.85-million-dollar fine on Lima Araujo Farm, a company in northern Para province, for having employed 180 workers, including minors, in slave-like conditions. Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
The ruling was made to discourage the practice in Brazil, which has persisted in some regions for decades, the court said.
"This conviction serves as an example not only for the employer, but for all the cases involving such practice," Judge Luiz de Mello Filho said.
The workers suffered inhuman conditions. Some of them were ill but could not quit because they were in debt to the company, the judge said.
The company has been fined five times for the exploitation of workers under conditions analogous to slavery since 1998, Mello Filho said. Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com