Labor Prosecutor General Fears Risk of Brazil Entering the Child Labor Dirty List
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Recent statements by President Jair Bolsonaro on child labor and slave-like labor may lead foreign companies and governments to impose restrictions on the purchase of Brazilian products, which would be detrimental to domestic companies, according to Ronaldo Curado Fleury, the Labor Prosecutor General, in an interview with G1 news site.
In early July, Bolsonaro said he did not advocate child labor but said that “work dignifies men and women, no matter how old they are”. The president even used himself as an illustration, saying he started working at the age of eight “planting corn, harvesting bananas,” and said it “did him a lot of good”.
In late July, Bolsonaro criticized the constitutional amendment that punishes with expropriation rural properties that engage in slave-like labor practices. Bolsonaro also called for a clear definition of “slave-like labor” in order to provide more “guarantees” to employers.
For the Labor Prosecutor General, who will be leaving office next week, the president’s statements are troubling. In his view, there is a risk that foreign companies and governments will find in Bolsonaro’s statements indications that the Brazilian government will reduce efforts to fight child labor and slave labor.
“Will international brands want their products associated with a country where there is an open public defense of child labor?“, Fleury asks, referring to Bolsonaro’s speech in early July.
Fleury said that countries like the U.S. monitor the fight against slave and child labor by their trading partners; further, Brazil runs the risk of being included in these countries’ “dirty list”.
“When we stop fighting [child labor and slave labor], we will go from blue to red. Brazilian products may — and certainly will — suffer entry restrictions in the United States. In Europe this dirty list also exists,” he said.
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