The transnational corporation DPA-Nestlé is forced to change the illegal workweek regimen imposed on its 17,670 workers throughout the country.

The Union of Food and Related Industry Workers of the State of Bahía (SINDALIMENTAÇÃO) has achieved a huge mass gain against DPA-Nestlé management. The Swiss company will have to change the workweek regimen it had adopted in Brazil (1 rest day for every 7 days worked), which is detrimental to workers, adapting its workweek to comply with labor laws. Workers will finally see their right to a weekly rest day observed.

The company had imposed the obligation of working seven days in a row and only resting on the eight day, with each workday extending for over 7 hours. This meant that the total hours worked in a week by Nestlé employees amply exceeded the maximum 44 hours permitted by law for a workweek. Workers were being forced to put in over 51 hours a week.

According to leaders of SINDALIMENTAÇÃO, the adjustment will benefit the 110 workers of the Itabuna factory, as well as the 17,670 direct workers the transnational corporation has throughout the country, as this system was imposed by Nestlé in several of its factories in Brazil.

“Like the workers in Itabuna, they all have the same right to change their exhausting work regimen, as they have been forced to take on an excessive workweek,” Siderlei de Oliveira, president of the National Confederation of Food and Related Industry Workers (CONTAC/CUT), said. Siderlei also pointed out that the transnational corporation would have to pay an average of 364 hours per year worked under this regimen, as compensation for overtime. “Anyone with ten years of seniority, as is the case of many workers, is entitled to payment of 3,640 hours of overtime. It’s simply a question of justice,” he said.

According to  Eduardo Sodré, coordinator of union policies at SINDALIMENTAÇÃO, the union based its claim on a June 2008 decision by a labor court in an action brought by the Union of Metallurgy Workers of Vespasiano e Región against the company Belgo Mineira Bekaert Artefatos de Arame Ltda (BMB - ArcelorMittal). The judgment determined that the workweek regimen adopted by BMB was illegal.

“The Union will be following the situation closely until the right to a 44-hour workweek is fully observed,” Antônio Nunes, legal director of SINDALIMENTAÇÃO, said, stressing that the union has a representative in the Ministry of Labor to ensure that worker rights are respected.