RIO DE JANEIRO, April 29 - Brazil's labor prosecution authority filed legal actions against five companies on Wednesday, naming grain trader Cargill and meatpacker JBS among those accused of labor abuses in their supply chains.
Prosecutors are asking a court to order JBS to pay roughly 119 million reais in damages in a case originating in Para state, where investigators say workers were found living and working in conditions described as "slavery-like" within the company's supply chain.
Separately, Cargill is the subject of a suit seeking 109 million reais in damages over what prosecutors labeled "grave violations of human rights" in its soy supply chain in Rondonia state.
Both lawsuits arise from a 2020 initiative that tracked supply chains to combat human trafficking and severe labor violations. The project, prosecutors said, identified instances that prompted formal legal action against the five firms.
In addition to the suits, prosecutors reported they had signed agreements with nine other companies that committed to improving how they monitor and trace labor conditions across their sourcing networks. Those deals are intended to bolster detection and prevention of serious labor abuses, according to the prosecutors' statement.
Neither Cargill nor JBS responded immediately to requests for comment, the prosecutors noted. The filings specify the monetary sums sought and the geographic focus of the investigations but do not list additional defendants or detail the exact measures agreed with the nine companies that signed monitoring agreements.
Background of the legal actions
The suits center on allegations that supply-chain sourcing in parts of Brazil involved conditions prosecutors characterized as slavery-like and as grave human-rights violations. The monetary claims filed against JBS and Cargill are cited in the prosecutors' statement as the damages sought in the respective cases in Para and Rondonia states.
Prosecutors tied the actions to findings from a 2020 tracking project focused on labor trafficking and severe abuses, and they said they reached voluntary commitments with nine companies to improve supply-chain tracking.
Note on currency - ($1 = 5.0048 reais)