President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil rose to power by fighting for the rights of workers. Now, in an awkward twist, his government is being accused of stifling concerns about labor abuses by a major Chinese carmaker.
The crisis comes after Mr. Lula’s government dismissed a top labor ministry official just days after he added the Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD to a national registry of employers accused of subjecting workers to conditions similar to slavery.
The episode has placed the government of Mr. Lula, a former union leader who co-founded the leftist Workers’ Party, in an uncomfortable position. And it has highlighted the growing prominence of Chinese automakers in Brazil, where they have made an aggressive push by pouring billions into building plants and expanding EV sales.
Brazil’s labor minister, Luiz Marinho, said the dismissal of his top labor inspection official, Luiz Felipe Brandão de Mello, was a routine personnel change but declined to say whether it was related to BYD.
“Changes are natural, they happen,” Mr. Marinho told The New York Times in an interview. “It’s my responsibility as minister to assemble a team.”
But to labor groups and government watchdogs, the timing of Mr. Mello’s departure raised alarms.
Just before he was let go, Mr. Mello had signed off on BYD’s inclusion on a “dirty list” of labor offenders after an investigation concluded the company had violated human rights at a construction site in northeastern Brazil. There, Chinese employees building one of its plants were found living in squalid conditions and working over 10 hours per day, with almost no days off.
Workers were lured into the jobs with promises of higher salaries, the investigation found, and were not free to end their contracts or leave the site. In a crackdown in late 2024, the Brazilian authorities ultimately removed more than 160 workers from what they said were slave-like conditions, which BYD has blamed on a subcontractor.
Under Brazilian law, companies found to engage in such labor practices must be added to the registry within several months. Ahead of a deadline in early April, Mr. Mello added BYD to the list.
On April 8, at the request of the Chinese automaker, a labor court agreed to suspend the decision pending further judicial review of whether BYD can be held responsible for its contractors. Then, on Monday, Brazil announced Mr. Mello’s dismissal in the official government gazette.
The move made headlines, causing an outcry from labor groups. Brazil’s national association of labor inspectors accused the minister of political meddling and called Mr. Mello’s firing “a serious sign of institutional retaliation.”
“He was obeying the law and fulfilling his duty,” said Rodrigo Carvalho, the association’s national coordinator. “This turns a technical public policy decision into a political one.”
Mr. Marinho dismissed accusations of political interference, insisting that he does not seek to aid any company and works to ensure technical decisions made by his team are sound.
Mr. Mello did not respond to a request for comment.
BYD also did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has shifted blame for conditions at the Brazil site to a subcontractor in charge of the construction, saying it no longer does business with the company.
This week, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry sidestepped questions about BYD’s human rights record in Brazil, saying that China “attaches great importance to protecting the lawful rights and interests of workers” and is working with Brazil on the issue.
Appearing on Brazil’s list of slavery offenders can carry serious consequences for companies, damaging their reputation, barring them from certain bank loans and making them less appealing to investors.
Brazil, a car-loving country of 213 million, is BYD’s biggest market outside China. In recent years, Chinese electric vehicles have surged in popularity in Brazil, Latin America’s largest nation, now representing about 80 percent of the E.V. market.
The firestorm set off by Mr. Mello’s firing adds to the scrutiny surrounding Mr. Marinho, who has been an ally of Mr. Lula since their days as union organizers on the outskirts of São Paulo.
Last year, Mr. Marinho stepped in to prevent several companies from being added to the slavery registry, including a division of the Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS. The legality of his actions is being challenged in Brazil’s Supreme Court.
With just months to go before a presidential election, the most recent episode threatens to tarnish Mr. Lula’s image as a defender of workers, an issue that for decades has formed the backbone of his political reputation.
A former metalworker with a fifth-grade education, Mr. Lula rose to prominence as a union leader in the 1970s and 1980s, leading tens of thousands of workers in a series of strikes defying the military dictatorship at the time.
Inspired by his work as a union organizer, Mr. Lula co-founded the Workers’ Party in 1980. Promising to represent workers’ interests, he was elected to the national legislature in 1986 and, propelled by populist support, rose to the presidency in 2003 for the first time.
Yet his party has lost much of its shine in recent decades, and Mr. Lula now faces the prospects of a tough race as he seeks a fourth term as president in an unpredictable national election this October.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Beijing, and Ruoxin Zhang contributed research.
Ana Ionova is a contributor to The Times based in Rio de Janeiro, covering Brazil and neighboring countries.
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