Ambev and Heineken fined for slave-like labor of Venezuelan immigrants in São Paulo

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  Without a job, starving, with three daughters to support and a two-month pregnant wife, Andrés* was forced to make a difficult decision. He left his family behind and abandoned Caracas to swell the growing Venezuelan exodus in search of sustenance in other countries, a phenomenon that has intensified since 2018 with the soaring inflation and the economic crisis plaguing the country ruled by Nicolás Maduro.

He hitchhiked almost 1,300 kilometers from his hometown to the small town of Pacaraima, in Brazil. He walked the last 200 kilometers to the capital of Roraima, where he arrived in mid-2019. In Boa Vista, nothing was easy: he slept on the street for eight months, scavenging dumpsters for food and surviving as best he could.

“I slept on old cardboard and ate leftover food from markets and what I found in the garbage,” he told EL PAÍS. Through representatives of the Brazilian Army and NGOs working in Operação Acolhida, a humanitarian aid operation for immigrants, he landed a job in São Paulo as a trucker in February 2020. But Andrés’ challenges on Brazilian soil were far from over.

In March 2021 he was one of 23 foreigners freed in an operation by the Program for the Eradication of Slave Labor and Trafficking in Persons of the Regional Labor Superintendence in the State of São Paulo, linked to the Ministry of Economy.

In an operation that began in the early hours of March 3, the fiscal auditors dismantled a labor scheme in slave-like conditions involving two of the world’s largest breweries, multinationals Ambev and Heineken Group (which in Brazil is called Cervejarias Kaiser Brasil), and an outsourced transporter contracted by both, Sider, which was the workers’ direct employer.

The companies are now preparing a schedule for the payment of the monetary and moral damages to these employees, and will have a deadline of a few weeks to prepare their defense in the case. In total, the 23 rescued workers will receive R$657,270 in compensation, about R$28,576 each.

The immigrants, 22 Venezuelans and a Haitian, lived for months (some for over a year) in the back of their trucks (a tiny space in the vehicle’s cabin) parked in the headquarters of Sider in Limeira and Jacareí, in the interior of São Paulo, with no right to the lodging established by law and agreed to when they signed the contract in Boa Vista.

They worked with no days off and exhausting work shifts. Moreover, there was no drinking water in these places. Extra fees and discounts were also imposed on these very vulnerable immigrants, such as a charge for a work shirt and boots, and the obtaining of the National Driver’s License.

Venezuelan Bruno* told EL PAÍS about some of the situations experienced during his months of work for Sider: “If the load falls off, it is deducted from our salary. If the tire goes flat, it’s also deducted. A tire that exploded during the trip cost a colleague R$1,000.”

He says that a small collection was organized among workers to help pay for the loss. After complaining about these abusive charges, he allegedly heard from a supervisor that “if you don’t like it, then go back to Venezuela and starve.” “It was a very difficult time. We were treated like dogs, animals. I lived for 11 months in my truck, in a space where I could lie down and sleep, and that was it,” he says.

The Ministry of Economy holds Heineken and Ambev responsible for the workers, based on the legislation that provides it is their responsibility to supervise the fulfillment of labor obligations by the outsourced contractor (Sider).

According to the report, both breweries “failed” and acted “deliberately disregarding the due inspection of compliance” with the laws applicable to the transportation company, aiming to profit “to the detriment of labor protection norms.” According to labor inspector Lívia dos Santos Ferreira, the contractors’ liability “arises from the fact that the Outsourcing Law requires that they guarantee the health and safety conditions of those who provide them with services.”

Therefore, “the exhaustive work day and the degrading conditions due to the lack of lodging, for example, are conditions that should be guaranteed by the contracting party [Ambev and Heineken Group].”

The report is categorical as to the breweries’ role: “The Heineken Group failed in selecting and contracting Sider as its transportation service provider, failed to inspect and demand the fulfillment of the labor legislation by the contractor, and, finally, failed to directly guarantee the hygiene, health, and safety conditions of the workers rescued during the execution of the outsourcing contract (direct liability).” The same applies to Ambev. “The imputation of responsibility for the working conditions to which the 23 professional drivers were subjected to the contractors Ambev and Heineken Group is indisputable.”

In a statement, the Heineken Group said it became aware of the case “through the Regional Labor Superintendence, and actively cooperated to ensure that all of the workers’ fundamental rights were observed as directed by the auditors.” The company further stated that “all suppliers undergo a rigorous selection process and sign a Code of Conduct where they commit to fully comply with the labor and human rights legislation.”

The note also says that since 2015 it has conducted the “Carrier Excellence Program, through which it conducts periodic audits, assessing contractors in the areas of safety, vehicle maintenance, sustainability, and risk management.”

Ambev reported that “as soon as we became aware of the complaint involving Sider, a transportation company that provides services to Ambev and other companies, we immediately ensured that the drivers were taken to a hotel, where they were sheltered and received all the necessary support.” The note also says that “following the guidelines and with the agreement of the labor inspectors, we ensured the payment of all labor indemnities and that the transporter would arrange for the drivers’ return to their place of origin or for their families to come, according to the choice of each one.”

Finally, Ambev said it has initiated “a review of our inspection procedures and support to transporters (…) to ensure that situations like this never happen again.”

Lives at risk with no rest

These workers were subjected to a work regime that placed their lives – and the lives of others – at risk. Some of the main infractions detected by inspectors and that corroborated the argument of slave-like conditions in this case were “the suppression of weekly paid rest” (time off) and the interday break – which occurs between one delivery trip and the next, and which, according to the law, should be of 11 hours. In practice, they were subjected to an exhausting work day behind the wheel, with no rest breaks.

“The result [of these conditions] has been an increase in the number of work accidents and mainly occupational diseases, which have even led to work-related deaths and suicides,” says the auditors’ report. With no right to rest or time off, some workers reported having to “sneak out of the Sider garage after 11 PM to see relatives.”

These workers’ monthly pay varied between R$1,900 and R$4,000, depending on the discounts and taxes. At first glance this amount paid to the drivers may be considered high, above the minimum wage of R$1,100. But Auditor Ferreira explains how the payment was made: “This salary included payments on and off the payroll. And it only reached this maximum value [R$4,000] when they were subjected to all of these violations, such as sleeping in the truck and cutting out time off. So the salary is proportional to the number of violations that they suffer.”

Sider offered workers the possibility of selling their time off, which is illegal. With nowhere to go – since the company didn’t offer them any lodging – and desperate to save money to help their families back home, most of them accepted the proposal.

“If I stopped [working and had time off], I had no way to send money to Venezuela to feed my family. It was exhausting, I am a human being. But I knew the situation in my country. There a kilo of rice costs R$50. A chicken costs the equivalent of R$200,” says Andrés. In the report, the inspectors state that this practice constituted “abuse of the immigrant worker’s vulnerability, for whom no lodging was provided for proper sleep and rest, and who was kept permanently in the truck for a long or whole term of the labor contract. Such abuse thereby induced the worker’s acceptance of the proposal to buy time off.”

In an audio message found on the cell phone of one of Sider’s coordinators, to which the inspectors had access during the operation, one of the drivers who had just unloaded his truck in Petrópolis, in Rio de Janeiro, at 9 PM, after a full day’s driving, refuses to immediately continue the trip to Extrema, in Minas Gerais, where he should arrive at 6 AM the following day to load the truck again.

The company demanded that he should travel seven hours during the night after a whole day on the road and with no rest. “Let them send someone else. We are drivers, not slaves,” says the Venezuelan in the recording. The inspectors were unable to determine what happened to this worker who refused to continue the trip.

After being exploited in São Paulo for over a year, Andrés managed to save money to rent a house. “Now I live with dignity,” he says. He should be reunited with his family in June. “I haven’t seen them for a year and a half. They are in Boa Vista and will come here to Jacareí soon. Then I will finally meet my one-year-old daughter who was in her mother’s belly in Caracas when I came to Brazil. Thank God things are working out now.”

Source: El Pais