Workers employed at Chinese EV maker BYD Co’s BYDDY factory in Brazil reportedly earned nearly twice the Chinese hourly minimum wage in many regions, despite questionable working conditions.
What Happened: Chinese workers hired by BYD’s contractor Jinjiang and employed at the factory earned about $70 per 10-hour shift, Reuters reported.
However, the workers had to hand their passports to their new employers and let most of their income be sent directly to China as well as pay a $900 deposit which they could retrieve only after working for six months, the report said, citing a contract signed by one of the several workers who Brazilian authorities said were rescued in December.
Brazilian authorities said in December that they have halted the construction of the plant that BYD is building in Salvador, Bahia after finding workers living and working in conditions analogous to “slavery.”
Authorities ordered that the construction of the factory in Bahia be stopped after rescuing 163 people working at the site, according to a statement by the Labor Prosecutor’s Office (MPT). The MPT also noted that the conditions constituted "forced labor." If a worker were to terminate their employment contract after six months, they would leave the country without any pay for their work since the company deducted their airfare to and from Brazil, in addition to other costs, the statement said.
Certain clauses in the agreement viewed by Reuters violate labor laws in both Brazil and China, the report said, citing experts and authorities. One of the clauses also gives the firm the power to extend the labor contract by itself for six months, Reuters added.
Why It Matters: Jinjiang Group has previously said that the Brazilian authority's portrayal of its employees working at the Chinese EV giant's factory in Brazil as "enslaved" is "completely inconsistent with facts."
Brazilian inspectors have provided no evidence that the EV maker knew of the violations at the construction site. However, according to the acting chief of Brazil’s Division of Inspection for the Eradication of Slave Labor Matheus Viana‘s statement to Reuters, BYD is “directly responsible” for the actions of its contractor on its site.
BYD was planning to start production at the factory in Brazil in 2025. The company is China's largest EV maker and makes plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles which are sold in China, Europe, and also Brazil. BYD even trumped American EV giant Tesla as the world’s largest battery electric vehicle seller in the last quarter of 2024.
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