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Brazil - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Brasilia

 

CLIMATE

Mostly tropical, but temperate in south.

 

LANGUAGES

Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Based on Roman codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

 

CURRENCY

Real (1 USD = 2.44760 BRL as of March 1, 2002)

 

BRAZIL - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

BRAZIL - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at Brasilia

Avenida das Nacoes

Quadra 801 Lote 3

APO AA 34030

70403-900 - Brasilia, DF

Telephone: [55] (061) 312-7000

Fax: [55] (061) 225-9136

http://www.embaixada-americana.org.br/

 

American Consulate General Rio de Janeiro

Avenida President Wilson, 147

20030-20 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Telephone: [55] (021) 2292-7117

http://www.consulado-americano-rio.org.br/

 

American Consulate General São Paulo

Rua Padre João Manoel, 933 - Cerqueira Cesar
01411-001 - São Paulo, SP
Phone: [55] (011) 881-6511
Fax: [55] (011) 852-5154
http://www.consuladoamericanosp.org.br/

 

American Consulate Recife

Rua Goncalves Maia

163 - Boa Vista

50070-060 Recife, PE

Telephone: [55] (081) 421-2441

Fax: [55] (081) 231-1906

 

Embassy of Brazil at Washington D.C.

3006 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20008

Telephone: (202) 238-2700

Fax: (202) 238-2827

http://www.brasilemb.org/

 

BRAZIL - HOLIDAYS

 

BRAZIL – LEAVE

Annual Leave: 30 days paid leave each year.

 

Maternity Leave: 120 days – 100% of pay (paid for by social security).

 

BRAZIL - MINIMUM AGE

The law restricts work that may be performed by children; however, child labor is a serious and widespread problem despite government efforts to combat it. The minimum working age is 16 years of age, and apprenticeships may begin at 14 years of age. The law bars all minors under age 18 from work that constitutes a physical strain or from employment in nocturnal, unhealthy, dangerous, or morally harmful conditions.

 

The law requires permission of the parents for minors to work as apprentices, and working minors must attend school through the primary grades. Because the legal working age is 16, the Government is attempting to increase the number of apprenticeships to provide more opportunities to 14- and 15-year-olds.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Brazil – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

BRAZIL - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

The Government adjusts the minimum wage annually; in April 2001, it was raised to approximately $75 (180 Reals) per month, which is not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Brazil – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

BRAZIL - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

BRAZIL - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The Constitution and the Labor Code provide for union representation of all workers (except members of the military, the uniformed police, and firemen) but imposes a hierarchical, unitary system funded by a mandatory union tax on workers and employers. New unions must register with the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MLE), which accepts the registration if no objections are filed by other unions. Registration may be contested with the MLE by other unions that represent workers in the same geographical area and professional category. In the case of such an objection, the MLE's Secretariat for Labor Relations has 15 days to consider the validity of the objection. If the objection is found to be valid, the MLE does not register the union and union organizers may challenge this decision in the labor courts.

 

The 1988 Constitution significantly reduced the role of the Government in certifying unions; however, it retained various provisions established by the labor code in the 1940's. One such provision is a restriction known as "unicidade" ("one-per-city"), which limits freedom of association by prohibiting multiple, competing unions of the same professional category in a given geographical area. Most elements of the labor movement, as well as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), criticize the retention of unicidade. Due to a continuing failure to reach agreement on the proposal, the Cardoso administration withdrew a proposed constitutional amendment to end unicidade that it had submitted to Congress in 1998.

 

In practice a number of competing unions have been allowed to exist among the thousands of local unions. However, these do not represent the norm, and the MLE and the courts actively enforce the principle of unicidade in decisions regarding the registration of new unions.

 

Approximately 16 percent of the work force is unionized, but nearly twice this percentage is charged a mandatory union tax and also is covered by collective bargaining agreements (see Section 6.b.). Most informal sector workers, including self-employed workers and those not formally registered with the labor ministry, fall outside of the official union structure. As a result, they do not enjoy union representation and are usually unable to exercise fully their labor rights. The informal sector has grown rapidly over the previous decade, and accounts for approximately half of the labor force. In the agricultural sector, 70 percent of workers are unregistered.

 

The Ministry of Labor estimates that there are roughly 11,000 unions across the country, but Ministry officials acknowledge that these figures are inexact. Local unions legally may affiliate with state federations and national confederations in their professional category. Although the law makes no provision for central labor organizations that include multiple categories of workers, there are four major centrals: the Workers' Unitary Central (CUT), the Forca Sindical ("Union Force"--FS), the Workers' General Confederation (CGT), and the Social Democratic Union (SDS). Labor centrals channel much of the political activity of the labor movement, organize strikes involving multiple categories, and represent workers in governmental and tripartite councils. Centrals do not have legal standing to represent professional categories of workers in collective bargaining.

 

The Constitution prohibits government interference in labor unions. Unions and their leadership generally are independent of the Government and of the political parties; however, there are some exceptions. For example, a number of labor leaders also hold prominent positions in political parties. Labor organizations often form alliances with political parties and social movements to advocate for specific issues. For example, the CUT joined with the National Conference of Bishops, the Landless Movement (MST), and a variety of NGO's to conduct a national plebiscite on debt repayment in September 2000 and to organize the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in January 2001. The major union centrals have close relationships with left-of-center political parties and often coordinate actions with party leaders.

 

The Constitution provides workers with the right to strike, except for the military, police, and firemen. The law stipulates that a strike may be ruled "abusive" by labor courts and be punishable by law if a number of conditions are not met, such as maintaining essential services during a strike and notifying employers at least 48 hours before the beginning of a walkout. Failure to end a strike after a labor court decision is punishable by law. The Government generally does not interfere with the right to strike, provided that all laws are obeyed. Employers are prohibited from hiring substitute workers during a legal strike and from firing workers for strike-related activity provided that the strike is not ruled abusive. However, in practice, employers do fire strike organizers for reasons ostensibly unrelated to strikes, and legal recourse related to retaliatory discharge is often a protracted process.

 

The number of strikes has diminished in the past several years. According to the Inter-union Department of Socioeconomic Studies and Statistics (DIEESE) latest published statistics, there were approximately 550 strikes in 1999, compared with 1,250 strikes recorded in 1996. In the Sao Paulo metropolitan area and surrounding region, which covers the country's industrial center, data from the regional labor court showed that there were 84 strikes in 2000, the lowest number in a decade. Transportation workers, metalworkers, truck drivers, and petroleum workers conducted major private sector strikes during the year.

 

Congress has yet to pass complementary legislation making enforceable the labor code provisions permitting strikes in the public sector; however, in practice, the Government has not interfered with the right of most government workers to strike. Numerous public sector unions at the federal, state, and local levels held strikes during the year to demand salary increases. According to DIEESE, the Federal Government has not given a general salary increase to federal employees in 6 years, resulting in a significant erosion of real earnings. Public sector unions who struck during the year included social security workers, professors, judicial workers, and employees of the Labor Ministry.

 

Civil and uniformed police also walked out during the year in many states to demand salary increases and safer working conditions. While civil police are allowed to form unions and conduct strikes, uniformed police are prohibited from organizing. In July an illegal strike by uniformed police in Bahia state led to rioting and looting, which ended only after the Government sent in federal troops to regain control. Growing labor unrest among the police has prompted the Government to consider legislation that would limit association among uniformed police and the unionization of civil police.

 

Labor leaders and activists have been targets of violence during demonstrations, although there were no known examples of this during the year. In May 2000, Sao Paulo military police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of striking workers from a coalition of 25 unions linked to the CUT. More than 20 strikers were injured. Strikers reacted by throwing rocks and cans at police, injuring five policemen. The ICFTU reported that police fired on striking workers at a government-run company in Brasilia in December 1999, killing public sector worker Jose Ferreira da Silva and injuring 20 others. Although police said that they used only tear gas and rubber bullets, live ammunition was found in Ferreira's body.

 

Intimidation and killings of rural labor union organizers and their agents continued to be a problem. The CPT reported that labor leaders are victimized by a campaign of violence in rural areas, with the perpetrators enjoying relative impunity (see Section 1.a.). Of the 1,222 killings of rural labor leaders and land reform activists registered by the CPT since 1985, only 85 of the killings came to trial and only 8 persons have been convicted. The CPT reports that 18 rural labor leaders were murdered through the first 8 months of the year. CPT leaders in Para state claimed that hired gunmen working in the service of estate owners committed most of these murders.

 

In July labor activist Jose Pinheiro Lima and his wife and son were killed near Maraba in the state of Para. The authorities charged a landowner with ordering the deaths, but released him from custody.

 

Para continued to be the state with the most violence directed toward labor leaders. According to leaders of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers, there is an organized campaign in the state of Para to kill rural labor leaders. According to Catholic Church activists, six activists had been killed in Para state as of August. Killings include the August death of Ademir Alfeu Federicci, a leader of the Federation of Agricultural Workers in Para, who was killed at his home by an unknown assailant. The labor movement, the landless movement, and the CPT led protests that called for police to investigate the crime as a political killing because of Federicci's public denouncements of official corruption. CPT leaders in the state of Para point to a growing sophistication in the contract killings of labor leaders in the state. They note that those who hire gunmen have become more adept at hiding their participation and increasingly target labor leaders with significant experience in organizing and leading land appropriations.

 

In November 2000, Jose Dutra da Costa, leader of the rural workers union of Rondon do Para, was killed by two gunmen in front of his home. Costa had been on the CPT list of labor leaders in the region "marked for death" for 8 years.

 

In May a local judge ordered that a trial of two men in Rio Maria, Para State (including the former mayor) charged with the 1985 murder of Joao Canuto, the first president of the local rural workers' union should proceed; the trial had not started by year's end. Canuto's daughter, Luzia Canuto, received death threats as a result of the case.

 

Human rights groups and land reform activists criticized a jury verdict in June in Paraiba absolving a landowner of guilt in the 1983 slaying of rural labor leader Margarida Maria Alves. The case is also the subject of an action in the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

 

Unions and centrals freely affiliate with international trade union organizations; the CUT, FS, and CGT are affiliated with the ICFTU.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The Constitution provides for the right of workers to organize and to engage in collective bargaining. Businesses and unions are working to improve collective bargaining through training programs for negotiators, but many local representatives have not received this training and remain unprepared to represent members effectively in negotiations. The normative power of the labor justice system, which may set wages and working conditions when negotiations break down and either party appeals to labor courts, continues to weaken collective bargaining. Although such appeals occur less frequently than they did a decade ago, the possibility of a better result in labor courts still leads to a lack of bargaining in good faith by parties in numerous negotiations.

 

Collective bargaining is widespread in the formal sector. In 2000 more than 18,000 agreements were registered with the Ministry of Labor. Unions are obliged by law to negotiate on behalf of all registered workers in the professional category and geographical area they represent, regardless of whether an employee pays voluntary membership dues to the union. Unions typically negotiate with employer associations (also called unions) that represent companies with employees in the same area and occupational category.

 

In 1995 the Cardoso administration promulgated a measure that simultaneously ended inflation indexing of wages, allowed for mediation of wage settlements if the parties involved so desired, and provided greater latitude for collective bargaining. Previously, labor courts and the Labor Ministry had responsibility for mediation in the preliminary stages of dispute settlement. Although labor court decisions still set wages in many disputes, parties now may choose mediation as an alternative. Free mediation services are provided by the Ministry of Labor and the Public Ministry of Labor, and unions and employers also may choose a private mediator from a registry kept by the Labor Ministry. According to the MLE data, in 2000 over 10,000 collective bargaining agreements used mediation services.

 

The Constitution prohibits the dismissal of employees who are candidates for or holders of union leadership positions. However, the authorities do not enforce effectively laws that protect union members from discrimination. Those who are dismissed must often resort to a lengthy court process for relief. Labor courts charged with resolving these and other disputes involving unfair dismissal, working conditions, salary disputes, and other grievances are slow and cumbersome. It is estimated that over 2.5 million complaints were languishing in the labor court system at the end of 2000. Although most complaints are resolved in the first hearing, the appeals process introduces many delays, and some cases remain unresolved for 5 to 10 years. According to the Supreme Labor Court, over 2 million complaints are registered annually in labor courts.

 

The Government is attempting to reduce this backlog and increase the efficiency of the courts. A January 2000 law enables cases with relatively low monetary claims to be adjudicated in one meeting with a judge within 30 days of the filing. Another law promotes the formation of employee/employer conciliation commissions designed to resolve grievances before they reach the labor courts. Approximately 500 such commissions were created in the first year of the law's existence, and roughly half of the complaints arriving in many labor courts can be handled with the expedited procedure. Nevertheless these changes have not had a major impact on the functioning of labor courts, and lengthy delays remained frequent.

 

Labor law applies equally in the country's four free trade zones, of which Manaus is the largest. The unions in the Manaus free trade zone, like rural unions and many unions in smaller cities, are weaker in relation to employers than unions in the major industrial centers. While 14 export processing zones have been authorized, construction has begun in only 4 of them.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The Constitution prohibits forced labor; however, forced labor and internal trafficking are problems in many parts of the country (see Section 6.f.). Forced labor is most common in the rural north and center-west of the country, in activities such as forest clearing, logging, charcoal production, raising of livestock, and agriculture. Forced labor typically involves young men drawn from the impoverished Northeast, but women and children also have been found in activities such as charcoal production. Although indigenous people comprise a small percentage of the overall population, they are especially vulnerable to becoming trapped in forced labor when separated from their communities (see Section 5). Labor inspectors also have found immigrants working in conditions of forced labor in Sao Paulo. According to government officials, Bolivian, Korean, and Chinese laborers are exploited in sweatshops in cities such as Sao Paulo under conditions that may involve fraud or coercion.

 

The majority of cases occur when employers recruit laborers from population centers and transport them long distances to remote areas where escape is difficult (see Section 6.f.). Union leaders report that most of the rural workers trapped in forced labor have been trafficked to the remote estates on which they work. Once at the worksite, laborers often are forced to work in brutal conditions until they are able to repay debt related to the costs of travel, tools, clothing, or food. Armed guards sometimes are used to retain laborers, but the remoteness of the location, confiscation of documents, and threats of legal action or physical harm often are sufficient to prevent laborers from fleeing. The CPT reports that fleeing workers sometimes are killed or beaten to set an example to others at the worksite.

 

According to the Penal Code, violators of forced or compulsory labor laws may be sentenced up to 8 years in prison. The law also provides penalties for various crimes related to forced labor, such as recruiting, transporting, or obliging workers to incur debt as part of a forced labor scheme (see Section 6.f.). A 1988 law allows the Government to appropriate lands on which forced labor has been found and to distribute the property in the Government's land reform program. However, this law rarely is applied, in part because compensation values for seized lands have been criticized for being too generous. Legislation that would permit confiscation of land on which forced labor is discovered was approved by the Chamber of Deputies and was awaiting a vote in the Senate at year's end.

 

Government officials and labor activists say that widespread poverty, low levels of education, and lack of awareness of workers' rights greatly complicate efforts to combat forced labor. Enforcement also has been hampered by the remoteness of the areas in which forced labor is practiced and the difficulty of arriving in these areas without alerting those using illegal labor. Although more than 3,300 instances of forced labor have been discovered by inspection teams since 1995, only 2 persons had been sentenced for these crimes by year's end. Numerous factors hampered prosecutions: Disputes over legal jurisdiction, political pressure at the local level, and a lack of coordination between the police, the judiciary, and prosecutors. Witnesses' fear of retaliation and the fact that police generally do not conduct criminal investigations when accompanying labor inspectors on raids also complicate efforts to build a solid case in court. Therefore the authorities often have found it difficult to identify and prosecute the owners of farms or businesses that exploit forced labor. In its March 2000 report, the ILO Committee of Experts noted that when convictions do occur, usually only the third party recruiters are punished and the owners of the large estates who employ illegal labor are not sanctioned. The failure to prosecute perpetrators and to confiscate lands on which forced labor is practiced has led to a sense of impunity by estate owners. As a result, a number of estate owners have been cited repeatedly for employing slave labor.

 

The Executive Group to Combat Forced Labor (GERTRAF) coordinates Federal Government efforts to eliminate forced labor. GERTRAF, which is chaired by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, includes representatives from seven ministries, as well as from unions, employers, and NGO's. GERTRAF is charged with coordinating government policies on forced labor and evaluating legislative needs. After 2 years of relative inactivity, GERTRAF was revived during the year, leading to greater cooperation among government agencies. A number of initiatives began during the year, including expanded participation of unions and NGO's in GERTRAF and the formation in December of a special working group on forced labor in the Justice Ministry. Enforcement of laws on forced labor is the responsibility of the Federal Public Ministry; the Public Ministry of Labor also may become involved in investigating such cases (see Section 6.f.).

 

The enforcement arm of GERTRAF is the Special Group for Mobile Inspection (SETIF), which works in conjunction with Federal Police. SETIF is coordinated by the MLE's Secretariat for Labor Inspection, and it is operated out of four regional offices. The relatively centralized structure is designed to insulate SETIF from local political pressure. The mobile unit operates in secret to avoid alerting estate owners and ranch managers to planned actions, and it conducts raids under the protection of federal police officers. When SEFIT teams find workers in conditions of forced labor, they levy fines on estate owners and require employers to provide back pay and benefits to workers before returning the workers to their municipalities of origin.

 

Since its inception in 1995, the mobile group has liberated over 3,300 forced laborers. During the year, the mobile group liberated approximately 1,600 workers and levied fines of more than $460,000 (1.1 million reais), greatly exceeding its results in any other year of operation. In one of its largest operations, in April the mobile group rescued 144 workers from conditions of forced labor on three ranches in Maranhao state. The workers, who were employed in raising livestock, were being held against their will because of debts that they incurred at the worksite. Anti-Slavery International reports that many of these workers had not received payment for several months.

 

Despite the efforts of the Mobile Unit, its overall impact on the incidence of forced labor has been limited by insufficient resources, the hidden nature of forced labor in remote areas, and the few prosecutions in the justice system.

 

The CPT is the leading NGO working to identify and eradicate forced labor. Through a network of local churches and regional offices, the CPT has tracked instances of forced labor for over 15 years. The CPT reported over 2,000 cases of forced labor during the year. Most of the reported forced labor occurs in Para state, and the CPT believes that the practice has increased in the state during the year. CPT representatives also note that these figures significantly understate the actual number of workers trapped in conditions of forced and compulsory labor in the country. The CPT runs an informational campaign called "Stay alert to avoid slavery," through which it distributes pamphlets to rural workers in areas that have been targeted by traffickers (see Section 6.f). Nevertheless, poverty and a lack of viable alternatives lead many workers repeatedly to fall prey to trafficking and forced labor schemes.

 

In a number of states, local unions register and track workers who leave the municipality to work on remote ranches. The National Confederation of Agricultural Workers also has attempted to educate workers about the dangers of forced labor in its radio messages. In 1997 the CUT labor central initiated a 24-hour hot line with a toll-free number for reporting instances of forced labor; however, the line received few complaints, and was discontinued in 1999 due to a lack of a visible impact and follow-up by authorities.

 

In November the ILO established a major program to support governmental efforts to fight forced labor through improved interagency cooperation, strengthened enforcement of forced labor laws, and provision of additional resources to the mobile inspection unit. The ILO plans to fund research, launch a public awareness campaign, and provide training for government agencies involved in curbing forced labor. The program also envisions a pilot income generation program for rescued workers that aims to prevent the recurrence of forced labor.

 

Trafficking in women and children for the purpose of forced prostitution also is a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

The law prohibits forced and bonded labor by children; however, a small number of children have been found working in conditions of forced labor. The CPT reported seven cases of forced child labor during the year. During the year, the mobile inspection unit of the MLE found 21 children under the age of 16 working on ranches where forced labor was found. Most instances of forced child labor occur when children accompany parents who are trapped in forced labor on remote worksites. In March 2000, the ILO reported that observers have cited over 3,000 girls who were subject to debt servitude and forced into prostitution in Rondonia state.

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The law restricts work that may be performed by children; however, child labor is a serious and widespread problem despite government efforts to combat it. The minimum working age is 16 years of age, and apprenticeships may begin at 14 years of age. The law bars all minors under age 18 from work that constitutes a physical strain or from employment in nocturnal, unhealthy, dangerous, or morally harmful conditions. However, the authorities rarely enforce additional legal restrictions intended to protect working minors under age 18.

 

The law requires permission of the parents for minors to work as apprentices, and working minors must attend school through the primary grades. Because the legal working age is 16, the Government is attempting to increase the number of apprenticeships to provide more opportunities to 14- and 15-year-olds. Legislation passed in December 2000 aims to expand apprenticeship programs by allowing a broader range of institutions to provide such programs. Previously, only state-linked training institutions could offer apprenticeship programs. Information was not available on the legislation's effect during the year.

 

According to government figures, the number of working children under 16 decreased from 5.1 million in 1995 to 3.8 million in 1999. Nevertheless, more than 2.9 million children under the age of 15 continued to work in 1999. Many work together with their parents, most often in agriculture. Approximately half of child laborers receive no income, and 90 percent are found in the unregistered informal sector. The highest incidence of child labor is found in the Northeast, where half of all child workers are employed. Slightly over half of child workers are found in rural areas, and two-thirds are boys. Frequent accidents, unhealthy working conditions, and squalor are common.

 

A 1999 Labor Ministry report indicates that children work in about 100 rural and urban activities. Common rural activities include fishing, mining, raising livestock, producing charcoal, and harvesting sugarcane, sisal, tobacco, cotton, citrus fruits, and a variety of other crops. In urban areas, children are found in shoe shining, transportation, construction, restaurants, street peddling, begging, drug trafficking and prostitution (see Section 5). According to the Government's Institute for Applied Economic Research, in 1998 there were approximately 800,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 17 working as domestic servants. UNICEF estimates that 50,000 children pick through trash dumps to generate income for their families.

 

Due to the hidden and informal nature of child labor, children are especially vulnerable to workplace accidents and often work in dangerous conditions. The ILO reports that the fragility of children and their lesser-developed ability to recognize risks in the workplace place them in a particularly precarious position. Children working in dangerous activities such as charcoal production, sisal production, sugarcane harvesting, and footwear suffer injuries including dismemberment, gastrointestinal disease, chronic fever and headaches, lacerations, blindness, and burns and poisoning caused by the unprotected application of pesticides. Studies have shown that rates of child labor are higher among citizens of African descent than among whites (see Sections 1.c. and 6.d.).

 

The Federal Government administers a total of 33 programs under 5 separate ministries aimed at combating child labor. The Ministry of Labor and Employment is responsible for inspecting worksites to enforce child labor laws. These efforts are guided regionally by Special Groups for the Eradication of Child Labor, which gather data and develop plans for child labor inspection. Nevertheless, most inspections of children in the workplace are driven by allegations and tips from workers, teachers, unions, NGO's, and the media. Approximately 3,250 inspectors conducted over 11,000 inspections during the first 7 months of the year, reaching roughly 60,000 workers under 18 years of age. In 2000 labor inspectors began to prioritize inspections in the informal sector to reduce the number of unregistered workers, but they remain unable to enter private homes and farms, where much of the nation's child labor is found. In most cases, inspectors attempt to reach agreements and have employers desist from labor law violations before levying fines equivalent to $155 (400 reais) per violation. As a result, few employers actually are fined for employing children.

 

Labor Ministry inspectors often work closely with prosecutors from the Public Ministry of Labor (PML), who have broader powers and are able to impose larger fines. The PML, which is an independent government agency responsible for prosecuting labor infractions and promoting compliance with labor laws, played a greater role in fighting child labor during the year. In November 2000, the PML created a national commission to fight child labor. The commission includes 50 prosecutors and is focusing on strategic areas including sexual exploitation, trash-picking, apprenticeships, and work in a family setting. The commission has allowed the PML to be more responsive to complaints regarding child labor and to encourage public commitments from officials to address child labor.

 

The Ministry of Social Security and Assistance coordinates the Government's Program for the Eradication of Child Labor (PETI), which provides cash stipends to low-income families who keep their children in school and out of work activities. This program is the Government's primary effort to end the worst forms of child labor. Because the public school day lasts only 4 hours, PETI also offers complementary cultural and instructional activities to children during nonschool hours to keep them out of work. PETI has grown from assisting about 3,700 children in 2 states in 1996 to roughly 600,000 children in all 26 states and the federal capital by the end of the year. The program focused on removing children from work activities considered to be among the most hazardous by the Government, such as charcoal production, sugar cane harvesting, horticulture, brickmaking, mining, trash picking, shoe shining, and street peddling. Although the program is concentrated in rural areas, it is growing rapidly in urban areas as well.

 

During the year, the Federal Government expanded its Program for the Guarantee of a Minimum Income and renamed it the Bolsa Escola (School Stipend) program. The program provides mothers of low-income families with stipends equal to $6 (15 reais) per child between 6 and 15 years old, for each of up to 3 children. To receive the stipend, the child's monthly attendance rate must be 85 percent. The Ministry of Education coordinates the Bolsa program, but responsibility for day-to-day management falls largely on municipal governments. At year's end, the program provided stipends to the mothers of approximately 9 million children in over 5,000 municipalities. Nevertheless critics are concerned that the program's rapid implementation, lack of comprehensive oversight, and small stipend value may compromise its ability to discourage child labor. In addition to the federal program, an estimated 100 municipal governments operate stipend programs, including Belem, Campinas, Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Olinda, and Recife.

 

In 1999 the Government ratified ILO Convention 138 dealing with the minimum age for work and Convention 182 on the eradication of the worst forms of child labor; in June the Government submitted 16 as the minimum age regarding Convention 138.

 

In March 2000, the Ministry of Labor established a tripartite commission that produced a list of roughly 80 activities to be considered worst forms of child labor. These activities, which include cutting sugar cane, applying pesticides, and driving tractors, now are prohibited to all workers under 18. ILO Convention 182 entered into force in February.

 

As part of its efforts to combat the worst forms of child labor, in 2000 the Government instituted the Sentinel Program to combat the sexual exploitation of minors (see Section 5). The National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor, which has chapters in every state and over 40 institutional members from government, unions, employers, and NGO's, promotes debate and analysis of national child labor prevention efforts. The Centers for the Defense of Children and Adolescents are active in many parts of the country, and report violations of children's rights and implement eradication programs (see Section 5).

 

Representatives from the private sector and unions also play a major role in fighting child labor. The Toy Industry's ABRINQ Foundation for Children's Rights operates a labeling program that identifies companies with child-friendly policies and a commitment to eliminate child labor in the production chain. The Foundation also fosters prochild initiatives through its awards to organizations, journalists, and mayors. The Pro-Child Institute in the state of Sao Paulo coordinates a labeling program in the footwear industry. The Institute has helped to reduce significantly instances of child labor in footwear production in the state, and it plans to expand to other regions and industries. All major labor centrals have implemented programs to educate union members about the hazards of child labor and encouraged members to report instances of child labor to authorities.

 

The ILO's Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) sponsors programs in footwear, charcoal, citrus, sisal, and domestic service. IPEC programs have focused on capacity building, awareness raising, research promotion, and the incorporation of income generating schemes and monitoring systems into child labor prevention programs. The ILO also coordinates a program to reduce the incidence of child labor in domestic service and the sexual exploitation of children (see Section 5). In addition, the ILO is supporting a child labor survey by the national statistics agency that is expected to provide the first comprehensive look at child labor and serve as a baseline for measuring the success of government programs. The survey questionnaire was sent out in August and final results are expected to be published in March 2003.

 

Through its central and regional offices, UNICEF supports over 200 programs to improve the lives of children. Since June 1999, UNICEF has helped to remove over 13,000 children from work in garbage dumps and placed them in schools, in part by providing scholarships to families and helping adults in those families find other forms of income generation.

 

The law prohibits forced and bonded labor by children; however, it does occur (see Section 6.c.). Trafficking in children for purposes of prostitution is a problem (see Sections 5 and 6.f.).

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

The Government adjusts the minimum wage annually; in April 2001, it was raised to approximately $75 (180 reais), which is not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. A 2000 study by DIEESE concluded that the minimum wage was only about one-fifth of the salary necessary to support a family of four in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area. According to the IBGE, approximately one in three workers earns the minimum wage or less.

 

The Constitution limits the workweek to 44 hours and specifies a weekly rest period of 24 consecutive hours, preferably on Sundays. The law also includes a prohibition on excessive overtime and stipulates that hours worked above the weekly limit must be compensated at a rate equal to time and a half; these provisions generally are enforced in the formal sector. The law allows employers to compensate workers in time off rather than in overtime pay, provided that the local union agrees to the arrangement. According to DIEESE, more than 40 percent of salaried employees in Sao Paulo worked over the legal weekly limit in 1999.

 

Unsafe working conditions are prevalent throughout the country. More than 340,000 workplace injuries, including approximately 4,000 fatalities, were registered with the Ministry of Social Security and Welfare in 2000. Fundacentro, part of the Ministry of Labor, sets occupational, health, and safety standards, which are consistent with internationally recognized norms. However, the Ministry has insufficient resources for adequate inspection and enforcement of these standards. Employees or their unions may file claims related to worker safety with regional labor courts, although in practice this is frequently a protracted process. According to the Ministry of Labor, the most dangerous industries in the country are logging, mining (including oil drilling), construction, and oil refining. During 2000, the logging industry had a rate of 37 deaths per 100,000 workers.

 

The law requires employers to establish internal committees for accident prevention in workplaces. It also protects employee members of these committees from being fired for their committee activities. However, such firings do occur, and legal recourse usually requires years before resolution. Individual workers do not have the legal right to remove themselves from the workplace when faced with hazardous working conditions; however, workers may express such concerns to the internal committee, which would conduct an immediate investigation.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The law prohibits the transport of persons for illicit reasons within and outside the country; however, trafficking in persons to, from, and within the country is a problem. Internal trafficking, which most often involves rural workers being transported to remote ranches to work under slave-like conditions, is a serious problem (see Section 6.c.). Trafficking of rural persons to urban areas also occurs to a lesser extent. The authorities estimate that thousands of women and children are trafficked, both domestically and internationally, both for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. Young men are trafficked primarily domestically in the agricultural labor market. Labor inspectors reported that persons also are trafficked into the country from other countries such Bolivia.

 

In 1998 the Penal Code was altered to increase the penalty for those who recruit and transport workers domestically through the use of fraud and for those who do not assure a return passage to workers. Traffickers charged under this law may receive a fine and prison sentences of 1 to 3 years, which are increased slightly if the victim is under 18, a senior citizen, pregnant, handicapped, or a member of an indigenous group. The Penal Code establishes a prison sentence of 3 to 8 years for transporting women in or out of the country for the purposes of prostitution. If fraud, force, or threats are employed, the sentence increases to between 5 and 12 years. The Statute on Children and Adolescents requires the permission or presence of both parents for children to leave the country. It also prohibits children from leaving the country with a foreigner unless previous approval is given by the authorities. Local activists claim that laws on trafficking are open to various interpretations and difficult to enforce, and they call for comprehensive legislation to aid in prosecution of traffickers and assistance for victims.

 

BRAZIL - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

BRAZIL - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The Constitution limits the workweek to 44 hours and specifies a weekly rest period of 24 consecutive hours, preferably on Sundays. The law also includes a prohibition on excessive overtime and stipulates that hours worked above the weekly limit must be compensated at a rate equal to time and a half; these provisions generally are enforced in the formal sector. The law allows employers to compensate workers in time off rather than in overtime pay, provided that the local union agrees to the arrangement.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Brazil – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)