Verité research has found that the use of labor brokers (including village-level agents, recruiters, labor contractors, and crew leaders) is widespread throughout the Latin American coffee sector, including in Brazil.
In previous Vision articles, we have pointed out that inadequate screening and oversight of brokers, recruitment agents, and labor outsourcing providers almost invariably leads to both legal and code of conduct non-compliances. It is closely correlated with the presence of indicators of forced and bonded labor in facilities that employ foreign migrant workers.
