Brasília, 3/18/2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The debate on how to punish land owners who practice slave-type labor continued in the Congress yesterday at public hearings on the issue. The controversial item in the debate is whether or not land used for slave-type labor should be expropriated by the government. Because the constitution guarantees private property, such expropriation would require a constitutional amendment.
Minister of Labor, Ricardo Berzoini, testifying at the special commission dealing with the matter, said the hearings were a positive factor in the attempt to understand exactly what slave-type labor was. "Legally the concept is clear. But it is not always clear for the layman. Slave-type labor is an infringement on the fundamental rights of workers," explained the minister, as he declared he is in favor of expropriating land belonging to people who use their land for slave-type labor because it was an appropriate punishment for the criminal use of labor for economic advantages.
Representing a different opinion, the vice president of the National Agriculture Confederation (CNA), Rodolfo Tavares, also testified. Tavares declared that existing punishments for people who practice slave-type labor are already "extremely grave." He added that exacerbating the punishment was a return to the Middle Ages. He pointed out that expropriating property was extending punishment beyond the criminal to his family, his children and wife. "Removing the property of a person to benefit the state cannot be justified," he declared.
Also testifying at the hearings, minister of Human Rights, Nilmario Miranda, disagreed with Tavares saying existing legislation on slave-type labor was not severe enough. "Our first concern should be with the fate of workers who receive no compensation and face hunger, misery, sickness and early death," he declared. Miranda also pointed out that nowadays a person found guilty of keeping workers in slave-type labor conditions is likely to be sentenced to giving poor people basic food baskets and nothing else. (AB)
