The court in São Paulo has ruled that Volkswagen must pay damages of 30 million dollars for the exploitation of workers between 1974 and 1986.

Volkswagen has been ordered by a court in São Paulo to pay 30 million dollars for collective moral damages, in a serious case of worker exploitation. Between 1974 and 1986, about 300 workers employed on a farm of the Volkswagen subsidiary were subjected to inhumane conditions, being forced to deforest the land and prepare the grounds for pastures, under the supervision of armed guards. They lived in precarious shelters, received insufficient food, and had no access to medical care, being kept on the farm through a system of indebtedness. The judge determined that the treatment applied to the workers corresponds to the legal definition of slavery, and the investigation was initiated in 2019, after a local priest brought evidence of these abuses to the authorities.