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Case in Eusébio exposes domestic exploitation over three generations, without regular salary, financial autonomy, or access to education
Labor inspectors rescued a 62-year-old domestic worker in Eusébio, in the Greater Fortaleza area, after 55 years in a condition akin to slavery.
According to the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT), the employer controlled the elderly woman’s Bolsa Família. The worker also went decades without regular pay.
According to the Labor Inspection Audit, the woman had been working continuously since 1971. Even so, she never received a monthly salary.
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Without her own income, she depended on the Cadastro Único and received R$ 600 per month from the Bolsa Família Program.
According to the inspection, the employer interfered with the benefit procedures. The employer made the withdrawals and then handed the amounts to the worker.
After the operation, the family canceled the elderly woman’s registration in the Cadastro Único.
Without salary, without education, and without autonomy
The fiscal report indicates that the worker lived her entire life without financial autonomy.
The elderly woman also did not have access to the educational and property opportunities enjoyed by the employer’s family members.
The MPT highlighted that the employers studied, became professionals, built assets, and started families. Meanwhile, the domestic worker remained illiterate.
Thus, economic dependence marked the worker’s life for decades.
Relationship spanned three generations of the same family
The story, according to the inspection, began in 1971. In 1982, the family took the worker to the house of the former employer’s daughter.
In this new home, she performed domestic tasks and cared for the couple’s three children.
Later, in 2014, the same family group transferred the domestic worker to another residence.
On the occasion, she began to take care of the next generation. At the same time, she accumulated domestic services with the daily care of the children.
Employment Link Was Recognized Only From 2014
After the start of the fiscal action, the employers recognized the employment link only from July 21, 2014.
This period corresponds to the last residence where the worker provided services.
However, the Labor Audit pointed out that the labor relationship spanned three generations of the same family, without interruption of activities.
What does this case reveal about the inspection of domestic work in Brazil?
