MPT sues Volkswagen for slave labor in the 1970s and 1980s in Pará

The Public Ministry of Labor (MPT) announced this Thursday that it had opened a public civil action against Volkswagen do Brasil, accusing the automaker of having promoted slave labor in the interior of Pará in the 1970s and 1980s.

The agency demands in the action that the German automaker pay 165 million reais for collective moral damages.

“The workers were subjected to slavery-like conditions through exhausting working hours, degrading working conditions and debt bondage,” says labor attorney Rafael Garcia Rodrigues in the action, according to a statement from the MPT.

When contacted, Volkswagen said that it had not yet been formally notified of the decision, “which is why it did not have access to the content of the action initiated by the Federal Public Ministry of Labor”, and added that it does not comment on ongoing processes.

The MPT’s action is based on documents from Pastoral da Terra delivered to the body in 2019. The MPT states that Volkswagen “had no interest in signing an agreement” with the body in 2023, “withdrawing from the negotiation table”.