Chinese automaker BYD slams reports of poor conditions at a factory site in Brazil

BANGKOK (AP) — A spokesperson for Chinese automaker BYD has objected to reports about poor conditions at a construction site in Brazil where it is building a factory, saying the allegations were aimed at “smearing” China and Chinese brands.

Earlier in the week, a task force led by Brazilian prosecutors said it had rescued 163 Chinese nationals it said were working in “slavery-like” conditions at the site. A video from the Labor Prosecutor’s Office of dorms housing the workers showed beds with no mattresses and rudimentary cooking facilities.

A BYD spokesperson, Li Yunfei, vehemently objected in a statement posted Thursday on his Weibo social media site.

“In the matter of smearing Chinese brands, smearing China, and attempting to undermine the friendship between China and Brazil, we have seen how relevant foreign forces maliciously associate and deliberately smear,” it said, also criticizing media reports about the situation.

BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, is one of the world’s largest producers of electric cars. The company said on Monday night that it would “immediately terminate the contract” with a contractor building the factory, the Jinjiang Group, and was “studying other appropriate measures.”

BYD said that the Jinjiang workers would be housed in nearby hotels for the time being, and would not suffer from the decision to stop work at the site. The company said that over the past few weeks it had been changing working conditions at the construction site and had told its contractors that “adjustments” had to be made.

Li's Weibo post also included what it said was a “declaration” from the Chinese workers at the site, imprinted with red thumbprints of the men, who were shown in a video sitting together in a room.

The video showed one of workers reading out a statement saying the reports of the poor and “slave-like” conditions had violated their human rights and that the problems were the result of misunderstandings.

“We cherish this work and want to stay and work here,” he said. When he finished, the workers applauded.

Prosecutors said the sanitary situation at BYD’s site was especially bad, with only one toilet for every 31 workers, forcing them to wake up at 4 a.m. to line up to be ready to leave for work at 5:30 a.m.

Under Brazilian law, slavery-like conditions are characterized by submission to forced labor or exhausting working hours, subjection to degrading working conditions and restriction of the worker’s freedom of movement.

Apart from living conditions for the workers, Brazilian officials said Jinjiang Construction Brazil had confiscated their passports and withheld 60% of their wages. Those who quit would be forced to pay the company for their airfare from China, and for their return ticket, the labor office said in a statement.

The workers’ statement said the passports had been taken to allow the company to process work permits and other procedures that they could not manage on their own due to language difficulties.

Jinjiang Construction Brazil said in a statement that it had been “frequently and intensively inspected by the local labor department in Brazil.”

It said that due to cultural differences, problems with translation and understanding, “much of the information released by the labor department was inaccurate, especially statements saying the Jinjiang workers were ‘enslaved’ and ‘rescued,’ which is completely inconsistent with the facts.”

It said its workers were willing to speak with media about the situation.

Living conditions for migrant construction workers can be quite spartan in many parts of the developing world, and such labor often involves contracts that require workers to pay back large sums of money used to secure the jobs, despite laws prohibiting such arrangements.

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AP researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.