Brazillian Company Fined $2.8 Million for Using Slave Labor

Free labor got a lot more expensive this week for Lima Araujo Agropecuaria, a Brazilian agricultural firm that was fined for using slave labor. The $2.8 million penalty is the largest fine ever given in Brazil to a business enslaving workers. And it's an indication that Brazil is getting serious about ending slavery.

Cattle ranching company Lima Araujo Agropecuaria owned several ranches across Brazil, many of which were in isolated and rural areas. Their locations made it easy for them to exploit vulnerable workers, including men, women, and adolescents. On the ranches, they didn't provide drinking water for employees and kept them in small, filthy huts without toilets. Workers were provided no access to medical care if they got hurt or sick. They were forced to work up to 24 hours straight, seven days a week, sometimes without any breaks. And unsurprisingly, Lima Araujo withheld their salaries. At least 180 workers were clear victims of this type of slavery in the past couple years. But the company had been raided and fined five times previous, between 1998 and 2002.

While the $2.8 million fine was undoubtedly deserved, the issuing judge made it clear that he was making an example out of Lima Araujo. In Brazil, an estimated 25,000 people are enslaved in similar conditions to the Lima workers, many of which are in agricultural industries in remote parts of the country. And across Brazil, companies like Lima Araujo profit from the enslavement and abuse of workers. But judges like Luiz Philippe Vieira de Mello Filho are sick of that profiteering. He wants to send a clear message across Brazil: if you enslave workers, you will pay, and you will pay big.

The best way to get companies to stop trying to profit from slavery is to hit them where it hurts the most: their pockets. Lima Araujo could have gotten decent food, shelter, medical care, and salaries for a 180 workers for far less than $2.8 million. But they went the cheap route which turned out in the end to be very, very expensive.

Photo credit: nicksarebi