The Brazilian government has dismissed the head of its labour inspection authority, days after his office added Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD to a registry of employers found to have subjected workers to conditions analogous to slavery.
Luiz Felipe Brandao de Mello led the National Secretariat of Labour Inspection since 2023 and his dismissal was published in the official gazette on Monday. He oversaw the unit responsible for enforcing labour standards nationwide, including the fight against slave-like working conditions.
The National Association of Labour Inspectors, known as Anafitra, said the firing amounted to institutional retaliation and linked it directly to BYD’s inclusion on the blacklist.
“The dismissal of an official for enforcing the law is an extremely grave act. It weakens the autonomy of labour inspection and endangers a public policy built over decades,” Rodrigo Carvalho, a labour inspector and member of Anafitra’s national executive committee, said in a statement sent to the press.
The association added that the episode was part of a “pattern of interference by Labour Minister Luiz Marinho in completed administrative proceedings”.
Anafitra accused Marinho of using his ministerial post to shield large companies from the consequences of slave labour findings and said they filed a case at the Brazilian Supreme Court seeking to declare unconstitutional the provision in the labour code that allows for the minister to take over completed enforcement proceedings.
BYD Auto do Brasil Ltda. was one of 169 employers added to the so-called “Dirty List”, when the Ministry of Labour and Employment published its semi-annual update last week.
The carmaker was blacklisted after inspectors concluded it bore direct responsibility for subjecting 163 Chinese workers to slave-like conditions during the construction of its factory in Camaçari, in the northeastern state of Bahia. The number later rose to 224 as investigations advanced.
Inspectors rejected BYD’s argument that the workers had been employed by subcontractors and were therefore not its responsibility. Auditors also found that contracts stipulated 10-hour days, six days a week, with provisions for extension that could push weekly hours to between 60 and 70, well above Brazil’s legal limit of 44.
Workers were housed in overcrowded dormitories. At one facility, 31 people shared a single toilet. Many slept without mattresses and passports were confiscated, preventing them from leaving the facility.
In late 2025, BYD and two contractors signed a R$40 million (US$7 million) settlement with the federal labour prosecutor’s office in Bahia following a civil action over slave-like labour and human trafficking at the Camaçari site.
But the company remained on the list for less than three days. On Wednesday, judge Luiz Fausto Marinho de Medeiros of the 16th Labour Court in Brasilia granted an injunction ordering the company’s removal.
He ruled that inspectors had not shown a direct employment link between BYD and the rescued workers, noting that the company’s core business was vehicle manufacturing rather than construction. The injunction is provisional and remains in force until a final decision.
BYD did not respond to a request for comment and the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment also did not reply at a request from the South China Morning Post.
Last week, when asked on BYD being added to the slave-like registry, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China “attaches great importance to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of workers” and requires Chinese companies to comply with local laws. She declined to address the specifics of the Brazil case. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
