Should human rights defenders welcome court decisions that punish companies for using slave labour to increase their profits? I believe that such decisions do not deserve praise when they have two characteristics: first, when they violate municipal law in their eagerness to impose the conviction; second, when the conviction cannot improve the situation of victims of slave labour.
A recent decision by a Brazilian labour court fined Volkswagen do Brasil approximately US$ 30 million to be paid into a State fund to combat slave labour and imposed a series of preventive and remedial measures, including an apology to the victims of slave labour.
This decision was praised on Verfassungsblog by Danielle Pamplona and Hartmut Rank (“historic, consistent, and necessary”). However, I would like to put forward an alternative view, as I believe the decision has the two aforementioned flaws: it does not comply with Brazilian law and lacks practical utility.
The decision (which is only available in Portuguese) was rendered on 29 August 2025 by a labour court judge of first instance. Spanning 337 pages, it thoroughly documents the employment of de facto enslaved workers at a Volkswagen do Brasil subsidiary, which owned a farm in northern Brazil. These violations occurred between 1974 and 1986.
The case was brought before the courts by the Labour Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2024, half a century after the violations occurred....
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