Slave labor amendment in Brazil
BRASILIA (BDCi) – A constitutional amendment that strengthens punishments for forcing people into slave-like working conditions was approved on Tuesday (22).
The amendment states that the government can confiscate the property of anyone found to be using slave labor, without compensation.
Offenders will also be subject to penalties already in the penal codes, like fines and jail sentences of up to eight years.
All that remains to be done is figuring out how property confiscation will be handled as well as strictly defining what counts as slave labor.
Slave labor in Brazil is most common on remote farms but has also occurred in urban sweatshops.
By: Diego Díaz Source: AP Photo: Google 23 May 2012
7:57 a.m. P.D.T.