Volkswagen asks for more time in Brazil human rights probe
Volkswagen
Volkswagenasked formoretimeto review reports alleginghumanrightsviolations tantamount to "modern slavery" on a farm it owned inBrazilbetween 1974-1986, according to minutes of an administrative hearing on theprobeseen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Public prosecutors summonedVolkswagento attend an administrative hearing in Brasilia on June 14 to review reports alleging the mistreatment of temporary workers at the farm inBrazil's Amazon region brought forward by the Ministry of Labor.
The minutes showed lawyers representing the carmaker said that the company neededmoretimeto analyze the reports given this was the first meeting it was participating in on the matter, but that it was treating the case in a serious and committed manner.
Ricardo Rezende, a priest and a professor at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, had first gathered testimonials from farm workers before submitting reports of mistreatment to prosecutors in 2019.Brazil's Ministry of Labor then independently investigated the claims, collecting its own testimonials from workers who are still alive, according to the minutes of the June 14 meeting.
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"The stories are very strong, reporting situations of intense and long-lasting violence, of very serious nature… the situations depicted are some of the most serious which the Ministry of Labor has come to know of in relation to modern slavery," the minutes said.
The testimonials included allegations of repeated outbreaks of malaria among workers, terrible accommodation conditions, debt systems, and discriminatory treatment between permanent workers in the headquarters and temporary farm workers.
A spokesperson forVolkswagensaid the carmaker takes the described events at the farm very seriously but that it would not comment further on an ongoing legal investigation.
A second meeting between the carmaker and the working group atBrazil's Public Ministry of Labor was scheduled for Sept. 29.
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