“Electric car maker BYD has brought in hundreds of Chinese workers with illegal visas to build a factory in Brazil, with the company promising to comply with local labor laws for workers who remain in the country.”, — write: epravda.com.ua
Electric car maker BYD has brought in hundreds of Chinese workers with illegal visas to build a factory in Brazil, with the company promising to comply with local labor laws for workers who remain in the country. This was reported by Reuters with reference to a key labor inspector. Last month, 163 of those workers, employed by BYD’s contractor Jinjiang, were found to be working in what Brazilian authorities said were “slave-like”. The 163 workers rescued in December are leaving or have already left Brazil, according to Leanne Durao, who led the review. Advertisement “All of this was illegal,” Durao said, adding that BYD would be fined for each worker found in such a situation. , without specifying the total amount that will need to be paid. She said the firm had agreed to bring the working conditions of the hundreds of workers who will remain in the country in line with Brazilian labor laws. According to her, about 500 Chinese workers were hired to work at the Brazilian plant. BYD is building a plant to produce 150,000 vehicles as part of plans to start production in Brazil, its biggest market outside China, early this year. It is currently unclear whether construction will be delayed due to an investigation into working conditions at the plant.Advertisement: The company invested $620 million in the construction of the Bahia factory complex alone. Almost one in five BYD vehicles sold outside of China in the first 11 months of 2024 were sold in Brazil. To remind: Brazilian officials found 163 Chinese nationals working in slave-like conditions at the construction site of a factory owned by Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Jinjiang Group, a contractor for Chinese electric car maker BYD, said Brazilian authorities’ portrayal of its workers as “slaves” was inaccurate and that there had been a translation misunderstanding.