Samsung Sued By Brazil Government For $108 Million Over Labor Rights Violations

Brazil’s Ministry of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Samsung (KRX:005935), accusing the company of providing poor working conditions and overworking its employees at an assembly plant in the country, local media reported, saying that the lawsuit is seeking $108 million in damages to compensate the affected workers.

The Brazilian government claimed that the South Korean tech giant was caught violating labor rights, including making employees work for more than 15 hours a day on foot, without providing sufficient breaks, for up to 27 workdays in a row. The lawsuit also claimed that due to long working hours, more than 2,000 workers suffered from serious health problems in 2012, according to a report from Reporter Brazil, a local news agency.

The report said that the lawsuit filed by the prosecutors is based on the assessment by registered auditors of Brazil’s Ministry of Labor and Employment, after two inspections made at a Samsung factory in May 2011 and May 2013. The plant in question is located in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, and is used to supply Samsung products such as TVs and smartphones across Latin America.

The prosecutors claim that Samsung employees at the factory were given a mere 32 seconds to assemble a mobile phone and 65 seconds to put together a television set. And, one worker is alleged to have packed as many as 3,000 phones in a day.

Samsung issued a statement, on Wednesday, saying that it will co-operate with Brazilian authorities and “conduct a thorough review” of the claims.

“Once we receive the complaint in question, we will conduct a thorough review and fully co-operate with the Brazilian authorities,” Samsung said in a statement, obtained by the Associated Press. “We take great care to provide a workplace environment that assures the highest industry standards of health, safety, and welfare for our employees across the world.”

This is not the first time that the world’s largest smartphone maker has been prosecuted in Brazil. Samsung was sued in the country over poor working conditions in 2011, resulting in the company paying a settlement of $200,000.

Nor is it the first time that the company has been accused of exploitative working conditions. Last September, China Labor Watch accused Samsung of “severe labor abuses” at six of the company’s factories and two of its suppliers in China, where employees were made to work excessive hours. The workers were also reportedly subject to unpaid labor, and both physical and verbal abuse.