Reports came out in late December that workers building a BYD factory in Brazil were working in “slavery” conditions and were potentially victims of human trafficking. Without a doubt, something horrible was going on. How much BYD knew or didn’t know, we don’t know, but the company has now terminated its subcontractor, Jinjiang Construction Brazil.
“Brazilian authorities have halted the construction of a factory for Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD, saying workers lived in conditions comparable to ‘slavery’,” BBC reported. “More than 160 workers have been rescued in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, according to a statement from the Public Labor Prosecutor’s Office (MPT).
“They were allegedly put in a ‘degrading’ environment and had their passports and salaries withheld by a building company.”
Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article
PSR Analysis: The conditions the workers were in, met the Brazilian government’s definition of “slavery like conditions.” What is not clear is who reported this to the government and how much (if anything) BYD knew about this. What is clear is that there is more behind the scenes that has yet to be made public. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
