While the corporate press has successfully confined itself to the past, the past is never truly past: slavery still exists on our planet—even in the 21st century. The ILO estimates that there are 30 million people held in what is euphemistically called “bonded labor.” Yet old and modern slavery are nothing new in Brazil. Between 1500 and 1866, slave owners in Brazil received almost six million enslaved people.

Apart from, for example, Volkswagen’s use of slavery in Brazil during the 1970s – ending in 2025 with a €26 million ($43 million) fine – a more recent case involves the electric car maker BYD. It shows how BYD deals with workers. China’s BYD sold 2.26 million battery electric cars during 2025, easily outstripping the 1.63 million deliveries by Hitler-Salute-giving Elon Musk’s Tesla.

With its use of forced labor, China’s BYD landed on the “dirty list for modern slavery.” The abuse occurred at BYD’s electric vehicle plant in Camaçari, Bahia, Brazil. Yet BYD suddenly disappeared from the list shortly afterwards. Evil heretics would suspect corporate lobbying.

The dirty slavery register lists corporations like BYD that subject their workers to slave-like conditions. During an inspection in December 2024, authorities in Bahia (Brazil) encountered 224 Chinese nationals – despite the global deregulation and anti-bureaucracy propaganda of the free-market apostles of neoliberalism.

Perhaps “because of” BYD’s immaculate “sustainable development” initiative, its polished “CSR programs,” and its “employee care” program – complete with slogans like “succeed with society,” “succeed with stakeholders,” “succeed with nature,” and “succeed with employees” – inspectors found several elements that constitute slavery, or at least slave-like conditions:

  • Workers were crammed into poor accommodation.
  • Many slept on “beds” without mattresses—a stark reminder of Auschwitz-Buchenwald.
  • In one barracks, 31 men shared a single toilet—another echo of concentration-camp-like conditions.
  • They worked up to ten hours a day, up to six days a week.
  • So-called “security” guards—detainers—ensured that no one left the premises, i.e. imprisonment.

The wonders of business ethics and corporate social responsibility allowed BYD’s subcontractor to run a swindle. Workers had come to Brazil through a scam: all held visas as “skilled workers,” although they were unqualified construction workers employed in building the plant. As a result of this corporate criminality, Brazil stopped issuing temporary work visas for BYD workers.

Meanwhile, 163 Chinese workers were freed from slave-like employment. The “dirty list,” created by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor in 2003, currently includes more than 600 businesspeople and companies, including 169 new entrants.

Bahia ranks third in number of cases, behind Minas Gerais – characterized by the mining industry – and São Paulo. Most often, modern slave labor occurs among domestic workers, in cattle breeding, on coffee plantations, and in construction.

Trying to escape corporate social “responsibility” (CSR), BYD shifts blame onto subcontractors. Usually, companies remain on the list for two years. However, the BYD group disappeared again after just three days. No corporate lobbying needed – just compliant courts. BYD applied for an injunction, arguing that the affected workers had been hired by a subcontractor – a convenient system for evading responsibility.

Of course, there was no “direct,” only an “indirect,” employment relationship between BYD and the construction workers—enough to suggest that BYD had nothing to do with its subcontractors, known as “subbies” in the industry.

To assist capitalism, subcontracting is legal in Brazil, as in most countries. BYD also argued that inclusion on the list disadvantaged it in tenders and lending – which is precisely the point when engaging in criminal, dehumanizing practices.

However, during the 2024 inspection, ministry officials rejected BYD’s worn-out argument and held the company responsible for controlling its subcontractors – which it did. Until a final decision is made, both the Brazilian government and the Ministry of Labor will comment on the case. BYD’s attempt to silence the state failed. It seems the Brazilian government favors free speech over corporate power – a rarity.

Yet BYD still won a short-term victory. Pending that decision, it was removed from the list. Journalists’ inquiries about the incident went unanswered – a typical public relations move reflecting a high commitment to business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Meanwhile, in 2025 alone, around a quarter more people were freed from modern slavery in Brazil than the previous year – a total of 2,772 workers, most in Minas Gerais and Bahia. For the first time since the blacklist’s creation, Labor Minister Luiz Marinho intervened directly several times in 2025 and – contrary to inspectors’ assessments – removed three corporations from the list, including BYD.

In protest, nine senior inspectors resigned. Critics fear the politicization of what were originally technical decisions. Since inspections began in 1995 – dismissed by neoliberal apostles as “evil red tape” – 68,000 people have been freed from slavery in Brazil.

In January 2026, BYD, together with two subcontractors, signed a settlement of 40 million Brazilian reals ($8 million). BYD’s net worth as of April 18, 2026, was $120 billion. The fine amounts to roughly one fifteen-thousandth (1/15,000) of BYD’s value – for ordinary people, akin to a speeding ticket of two cents.

Yet the Mickey Mouse fine goes directly to the liberated workers, partly funding compensation for collective non-material damage. In a statement, a BYD spokesperson assured the public that the company “strictly respects human rights” and operates according to Brazilian law and international occupational safety standards. Perhaps this is achieved through subcontracting slaves.

None of this prevented strikes at the BYD plant in Camaçari. Meanwhile, BYD is focusing on foreign markets as sales in China decline. The Camaçari plant – the largest in Latin America – involves investments of more than €900 million ($1.06 billion) and promises 20,000 jobs, though such projections tend to be overly optimistic.

President Lula attended the opening in October 2025. Yet only 300 – the selected few – of the 1,500-strong workforce were invited, as the union noted. Favoritism remains a classic management tool, especially among those who preach business ethics. It makes a mockery of BYD’s polished “CSR programs” and “employee care” slogans – and of what overpaid business school professors call business ethics.

It gets worse. In December 2025, one year after the liberation of 163 workers and shortly before the settlement, conditions in Camaçari again deteriorated. Around 2,000 construction workers went on strike for better conditions. They demanded payment of outstanding wages and basic facilities: drinking water dispensers, changing rooms, and more toilets—only six served thousands. Perhaps the logic of BYD’s “CSR” programs is to dehumanize workers.

According to the regional construction union, several strikers were dismissed on the seventh day. Hadn’t BYD claimed it “strictly respects human rights”? The right to strike is a human right (Article 24). Worse for BYD, Article 4 states: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.” Yet this is precisely what occurred.

A rally at the plant entrance was dispersed the next day by military police using tear gas. The Brazilian prosecutor’s office has filed charges against BYD, as well as JinJiang and Tecmonta, accusing them of creating slave-like conditions and facilitating human trafficking during the factory’s construction.

Meanwhile, Brazil remains BYD’s most important foreign market. In December 2024, the company dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign. Yet workers at the site were victims of human trafficking. BYD has become a symbol of China’s growing influence in South America and plans to produce 150,000 cars – almost every fifth vehicle it sells outside China.

To add insult to injury, BYD reiterated its “non-negotiable” commitment to human and labor rights, claiming compliance with Brazilian law and international standards, and cooperation with prosecutors.

Some observers note that conditions at the Brazilian site resemble those faced by construction workers in China. This sparked debate about how many workers in China endure conditions that meet international definitions of slavery. The notorious “996” work culture – 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week—violates labor law yet remains widespread. In China, as in Brazil and elsewhere, workers are ruthlessly exploited – a reality recognized since William Blake’s Satanic Mills(1808) and Friedrich Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845).Email