The Ministry of Labour and the Federal Income Administration (AFIP) have increased controls and the results are still shocking. 

It was recently revealed that the Argentinean government will punish DuPont Argentina and its subsidiaries Pioneer and Adecco, after labor inspectors found a camp of day workers who were being exploited in a farming establishment in Cordoba province. The case was described as “slave trade”. 
 
“We are talking about slavery in the 21st century. We cannot let that happen”, said AFIP’s spokesman, Ricardo Echegaray. The worker told state-owned TV channel 7, that transnational corporation DuPont has profited from slave work and called the judiciary to put the people responsible “behind bars”. 

The majority of the 150 workers who were found in the farming facility in Cordoba had been hired to “deflower corn”, a task usually carried out by seed transnational corporations like DuPont, Nidera, Status Ager and Southern Seeds to obtain hybrid seeds. 

Research conducted by Agencia Periodística del Mercosur (APM) says these companies hire the services of outsourcing, logistics and field work supervision companies like SMW Agro, Adecco and Manpower. 

APM revealed testimonies of rural workers that were exploited by US corporation DuPont. “We don’t even know how much we are going to get paid now”. “We don’t even know when we will come back. When someone complained, they punished the whole group of workers”, said some of the workers, most of them from Santiago del Estero province, in the north of Argentina. 

Pagina 12 reported that AFIP has already canceled economic benefits for the transnational corporation, such as customs exemptions. The companies accused of “slave work” will not be able to act as state suppliers and will no longer enjoy credit, fiscal and customs benefits. 

Photo: Telesur