cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8673252

Lawmakers in Brussels have asked the European Commission to address claims of poor working conditions linked to BYD’s factory development in Hungary, putting the Chinese carmaker under scrutiny by the European Union (EU).

The issue … follows a report released on 14 April by New York-based China Labor Watch (CLW).

CLW accused contractors at the Szeged site of requiring thousands of workers to work every day of the week, often in shifts exceeding 12 hours.

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According to CLW, workers – most of them from China – were only able to pause work when severe weather halted construction.

Qiang Li, founder of the group, said that managers were pushing to start vehicle production in January 2026 and “wanted to begin production of cars in January [2026], so they were rushing the project’s timeline – they weren’t letting workers leave”.

The report also alleged that employees were told to mislead labour inspectors by saying they worked only “five days per week, eight hours per day, with one hour of overtime”.

CLW said the actual schedules breached Hungary’s labour rules and resembled the International Labour Organization’s definition of forced labour.

The watchdog also named AIM Construction Hungary, a unit of Jinjiang Construction Group, as one of the contractors involved.

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In Brazil, the fallout from BYD’s labour controversy has reached the government level.

An official gazette showed that Luiz Felipe Brandao de Mello, who led the agency responsible for enforcing labour standards, was removed from his role.

Reuters, citing two sources, said the move followed a decision to place BYD on a blacklist that limited access to loans.

Brazil’s labour ministry had added the company to the list days earlier, but a court later suspended the measure pending a final decision.

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