World Cup stadium builder added to Brazil's slave labour "dirty list"Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Fri, 4 Jul 2014 07:47 GMTAuthor: Adriana Brasileiro

A January 2014 aerial view shows the Arena das Dunas stadium, which is hosting World Cup football matches, in Natal. The company that built the stadium, OAS SA, has been included on the Brazil Labour Ministry’s slave labour “dirty list” for treating workers like slaves at another construction site of an office tower in southeastern Minas Gerais state. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Brazil’s Labour Ministry has added the construction company that built two stadiums for the World Cup to its slave labour “dirty list” released this week, according to a ministry statement.

OAS SA, one of Brazil’s largest construction firms, was accused of subjecting 124 workers to degrading conditions at the construction site of an office tower that is part of a shopping mall complex in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Agents and prosecutors from the Labour Ministry monitored the site from June to October 2013, and found evidence of workers being treated like slaves and made to work “exhausting” hours, according to the ministry.

OAS also recruited migrant workers from the interior of Bahia state, but did not pay for their travel costs as mandated by law.

“These are civil construction projects, in which workers are subjected to significant physical demands, in which activity is widely recognised as carrying a number 3 risk level, on a scale of 1 to 4, and where a very high number of accidents happen, including fatal accidents,” Labour Ministry agents Audria Kelle Gontijo Rebelo and Fabio Antonio Araujo wrote in a report that led to OAS’s inclusion on the slavery list published on July 1.

OAS, a Brazilian multinational with operations in 20 countries where it has built everything from hydroelectric dams to airports and bridges, said in a statement to Thomson Reuters Foundation that its inclusion on the list was unjustified. The company declined to comment further after requests by phone and email.

Excerpt: Brasileiro, A. (2014, July 4). World Cup stadium builder added to Brazil's slave labour. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.trust.org/item/20140704074731-3ih6d/

For migrant workers, Olympic dream turns to nightmare in SochiBY ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC AND MAJA ZUVELABELGRADE/BILECA Wed Feb 5, 2014 5:12am EST

Construction workers walk through the mountain media village on top of the village of Esto Sadok at the Rosa Khutor alpine resort near Sochi, February 2, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/DOMINIC EBENBICHLER (Reuters) - When Sasa Matic was offered a job on a building site in Sochi, he suspected it was too good to be true. Yet he and scores of others from Serbia and Bosnia heeded the siren call of Russia's 2014 Winter Olympics, seduced by the prospect of earning more in two months than most Serbs or Bosnians pocket in a year.

"It was a dodgy deal, but I thought: it's only two months. The money was good, and I needed it," said Matic, an unemployed 41-year-old from the western Serbian town of Sabac.

He was just one of thousands of migrant workers recruited mainly from ex-Soviet Central Asia but also from the Balkans to work on the $50 billion construction of the Sochi Games, a prestige project of huge importance for Russia's image at home and abroad.

For Matic, however, it quickly turned into a nightmare.The Serbian government repatriated more than 100 Balkan workers last month after they were detained by Russian police for working illegally. Matic escaped and spent a week train-hopping and hitchhiking before finally walking into Serbia across its northern border with Hungary.

Speaking to Reuters, Matic described how after a 27-hour bus ride to Sochi, he was given lodgings in an empty room and put to work as a plasterer without a contract or the necessary visa. He rigged a light bulb in his room with a scavenged power cable.

Though promised around 4,000 euros ($5,500), he received only two advance payments totaling 600 euros, which he spent mainly on food.

"We finished the job ahead of schedule and demanded our pay," Matic said. "A Russian man came in wielding a gun. He was like the baddie in a gangster movie. We took what little money they gave us and left."

"We used outdoor toilets and had to pay 150 roubles ($4.3) for a shower," said Miomir Stolica, 38. "There were only four toilets for about 200 construction workers."

In general a growing number of Serbian migrants were being exploited around the world, up from 12 percent in 2011 to 29 percent in 2013.

It is testimony to the plight they face at home - with unemployment rates in Serbia and Bosnia at more than 20 percent - that Stolica said he did not regret trying."If we get the chance, we'd do the same again," he said. "For us, Russia is the promised land." (Additional reporting by Timothy Heritage in Moscow; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic, Matt Robinson and Gareth Jones)

Excerpt: Vasovic, A., & Zuvela, M. (2014, February 05). For migrant workers, Olympic dream turns to nightmare in Sochi. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-olympics-migrants-idUSBREA140HW20140205

Fair/Unfair

Many sports clothes and goods are made in Asian countries like China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Some will end up in our shops. Here are the stories of some of the people who made these products for both the Beijing and London Olympics.

I worked from early in the morning until 2 a.m. the next day... I was so exhausted, but I was still required to go to work as usual the next day.13-year-old girl making stationery for the Beijing Olympics in China

None of us has time to go to the toilet or drink water. Even so, we are working without rest and are always afraid of not working fast enough to supply soles to the next production line. The supervisors are pressuring and nagging us all the time.Worker making New Balance shoes, Dongguan, China

My wage is conditional. If I don’t complete my daily target within the regular working hours, I have to work overtime without pay to finish my target.Garment worker on a temporary contract in a factory supplying Nike, Adidas and Fila in Indonesia

I have a permanent job as a machine operator. I make Adidas t-shirts and trousers. I work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.* I am allowed a 10-minute tea break in the morning and afternoon. I have half an hour for lunch.* Includes two hours over-timeSandamalee, aged 26, Sri Lanka

I participated in a strike to ask for better working conditions and wages. Soon afterwards, I lost my job. Hamdani made Adidas products in Indonesia.

I have had training on health and safety. I get 14 days paid leave in a whole year, but no paid sick leave. I definitely can’t survive on my basic wage of £64 ($115) a month. I have to work overtime – I work about 60 hours a week. Accommodation and childcare alone costs £25 ($45) a month. Sheran makes Nike products in Sri Lanka.

Excerpt: Playfair 2012. (2012). Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.antislavery.org/english/what_we_do/education/resources_for_education/playfair.aspx

1. After having read the 3 articles, complete the table below.

Canada Brazil 2014 World Cup Workers Sochi 2014 Olympics Workers London 2012 /Beijing 2008 Olympics Workers

Pay Average of $24.79/hour1

Hours and

Breaks

Hours: Average of 36.6

hours/week2 Breaks: Legally, a minimum of

30 min/5 hours3

Vacation Average of 19 days/year4

Dangers and

DisciplineN/A

1 Average hourly wages of employees by selected characteristics and occupation, unadjusted data, by province (monthly) (Canada). (2014, October 10). Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labr69a-eng.htm2 Work - Weekly Hours Worked. (2014, October 29). Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r%40-eng.jsp?iid=193 Hours of Work - Labour Standards. (2013, May 6). Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www.labour.gc.ca/eng/standards_equity/st/pubs_st/hours.shtml4 Canadians are vacation deprived: Study. (2006, May 18). Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadians-are-vacation-deprived-study-1.587081

2. Do you think the workers for the Rio World Cup, the Sochi Olympics, and the London/Beijing Olympics were are being treated fairly or unfairly at

work? Explain.

3. How do each of these workers compare with the peasant and serfs of the Middle Ages? Elaborate.

4. Do you have opportunities or responsibilities to respond to modern cases of slavery or questionable labour practices/working conditions?