Government launches campaign against domestic slave labor
Dial 100 operators will start receiving anonymous denounces about possible cases of domestic workers submitted to degrading working conditions. The initiative is part of the national campaign that the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship launched this week, as part of the actions announced on the occasion of the National Day of the Domestic Worker.
The campaign is structured on three axes, as explained by the national secretary and coordinator of the National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor, Isadora Brandão.
"The first axis seeks to give more visibility to the issue of domestic slave labor. Although this issue is central in the debate about decent work in Brazil, we still live with a scenario of great lack of legal and labor protection for these workers," said the secretary, referring to women, who represent almost all the labor force employed in domestic work in the country - most of them (65%) are black.
"The second axis of the campaign seeks to promote education in human rights. Through accessible information, we intend to make it possible for each and every domestic worker to know her rights better, so that she can recognize that she is subjected to abusive working conditions," continued Isadora, explaining that, due to historical issues, it is common for the disrespect of the labor rights of domestic workers to be seen as something natural.
Dial 100 is the third axis, which deals precisely with offering a new channel for denunciations. "One of the challenges is the fact that these cases occur at home, which makes enforcement action difficult. That's why we offer a reporting channel like Dial 100, which is extremely accessible," said the secretary.
Also called Disque Human Rights, Disque 100 receives, free of charge, calls made from fixed or mobile phones, from all over the country. It works 24 hours a day, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. In addition to receiving and forwarding for analysis reports of human rights violations, the agents who work at the service are trained to provide basic information about the rights of vulnerable groups (children and adolescents, the elderly, people with disabilities and/or living on the streets, the LGBT population, among other groups) and to guide people in cases of serious violations.
