ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

A Brazilian federal judge has ordered that the government add a poultry unit of meatpacker, JBS Aves, to Brazil’s official “black list” of employers associated with slavery-like working conditions. According to the company, JBS is one of Brazil’s largest employers, with some 158,000 workers in the country.

The case arose following a 2024 federal inspection carried out at a facility in Rio Grande do Sul. Inspectors found ten workers working for a contractor hired by JBS Aves to load and unload cargo. According to inspection reports, the workers were subjected to working shifts of up to 16 hours, housed without access to clean drinking water, and had unlawful wage deductions applied, which made it difficult for them to leave their employment. Under Brazilian law, slavery-like conditions include forced labour, debt bondage, degrading working conditions and excessive working hours that pose health risks.

Following the inspection, federal labour prosecutors brought a lawsuit against the government. This occurred after the Labour Minister, Luiz Marinho, conducted a review of the case and prevented JBS from being added to the black list. The presiding judge, Katarina Roberta Mousinho de Matos, ruled that the minister’s decision was unlawful, and ordered that the government include JBS Aves on the list. The ruling also required the inclusion of two smaller Brazilian companies that had previously been removed from the list through the same review process.

The Ministry of Labour stated that it would appeal the decision once formally notified. JBS told Reuters that it had suspended the contractor, terminated the contract, and blocked the company after becoming aware of the allegations. Under the black list system, companies remain listed for two years and face restrictions on access to certain types of credit from Brazilian banks.