BYD vehicles in the production line at the company’s new electric vehicle factory at the Industrial Complex in Camacari, in the state of Bahia, Brazil Oct. 9, 2025.
Joa Souza | Reuters
Brazilhas putChina’sBYDon a registry of employers who have subjected workers toconditionssimilar toslavery, after a 2024 scandal in which Chinese workers were said to have been victims of human trafficking and abusive contracts.
Thelist, published byBrazil’s Labor Ministry, carries further reputational risk for the automaker in its biggest market after China.
It also barsBYDfrom obtaining certain types of loans fromBrazilian banks, but does not affect the operation of its sole auto plant in the country that the workers were hired to build.
BYDdid not reply to a request for comment.
Jinjiang Group, the contractor thatBYDused to hire the 163 workers cited in the scandal, hasdeniedthe claims.BYDhas previously said it had no knowledge of any violations until reports byBrazilian media in late November.
Brazilian officials have argued thatBYDis ultimately responsible for itsworkers’conditionsas it should be supervising its contractors.
Crammed lodgings, no mattresses
Chinese workers hired by Jinjiang inBrazilhad tohand over their passportsto their new employer, let most of their wages be sent directly to China, and fork over an almost $900 deposit that they could only get back after six months’ work, according to a labor contract seen by Reuters.
A raid by labor inspectors also found the laborers living crammed in lodgings without mattresses. Thirty-one workers were crammed in a single house with only one bathroom and food piled up on the ground alongside personal belongings, in what inspectors said were “degradingconditions.”
The scandal caused international outrage, including in China,and led to a months-long delay in the construction of the plant.
ButBYDhad appeared to have put the scandal behind it, with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attending the plant’s inauguration in October in a show of the strengthening ties betweenBraziland China.
The plant has since produced over 25,000 vehicles.
Companies can avoid being included in thelistby signing a deal with the government committing to change their practices and compensate workers whose rights were abused.
BYDsigned a deal with labor prosecutors over the matter, but not with labor inspectors.
Firms are only added to thelistafter all possibilities of appeal are exhausted at the government level. After a company is added, it stays on thelistfor two years, barring a court decision to remove it.
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