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Article

12 Apr 2021

Author:
The Guardian

Brazil: Plan to reduce employees' breaks put meat plant workers' health at risk

“Brazil’s meat plant workers at risk from ‘inconceivable’ plan to cut break times”, 12 April 2021

...The health of hundreds of thousands of meat plant workers in Brazil is at risk from an industry-backed plan to reduce breaks given to employees, say workers’ rights groups in the country. In the midst of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 350,000 Brazilians, President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, parliament and the meat industry have been pushing for a move to review the laws and regulations protecting workers at slaughter plants. New rules under discussion would limit the regular breaks given to workers enduring cold temperatures, which labour specialists say helps reduce the potential for injury...The 20-minute breaks every hour and 40 minutes allow for “thermal recovery” from the cold temperatures. The proposed changes would mean these breaks would only be granted to employees subject to temperatures below 4C or moving loads between places with a temperature difference of 10C. This would cover about 5% of meat plant workers…Bolsonaro’s government has announced plans to review federal rules (known as NR36) covering minimum distance between workers and the use of adequate furniture to avoid accidents, as well as break times...