After slave labor, BYD’s factory in Bahia is the scene of accusations of sexual harassment and other complaints

Less than two years after being caught in one of the biggest labor scandals in the automotive industry in Brazil, the BYD plant in Camaçari (BA) faces a new front of tension with its employees. The trigger, this time, is the 2026 wage campaign, whose agenda was delivered to the automaker this Monday (13) by the Metalworkers’ Union – but what raised the tone of the dispute were the complaints of harassment reported by the entity and the wear and tear around the police presence at an assembly last week.

In the field of demands, the union asks for a 15% increase, an increase in food vouchers to R$ 850 and a cut in health insurance costs. The entity also wants more space to operate within the plant, with access to the cafeterias and the different shifts. The first rounds of negotiation, according to the president of the union, Júlio Bonfim, were scheduled for next week. The move comes in the wake of a recent Profit Sharing agreement that can reach R$ 10 thousand per worker, divided into two installments — the first in July, the second in January 2027, linked to performance goals.

Harassment complaints

The most delicate point on the agenda, however, is not financial. To Times Brasil, Bonfim says that the union gathered formal complaints of moral and sexual harassment attributed to Chinese and Brazilian bosses against women who work at the unit. The leader, however, did not detail how many episodes would have been reported, in what period they would have happened or if the material has already reached the authorities. The entity says that it will take the matter to the negotiation table and that it intends to appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to studying legal measures, if the practices do not cease.

The escalation originates from an assembly held on Thursday (9), called to approve the agenda of the base date. According to the union’s version, the meeting ran without incident until three Military Police vehicles arrived at the scene. The entity maintains that about 14 agents armed with rifles remained in front of the factory and that the apparatus constrained the workers to end the act and resume work. The unionists also claim that BYD representatives moved among those present and that the gates were kept open to empty the mobilization, attributing to the company itself the call to the corporation. To deal with the episode, the union scheduled a conversation with the Military Police Command.

Sought on Sunday (12) about the accusations and the direction of the impasse, both BYD and the Military Police of Bahia did not respond until the closing of the original report, published by Times Brasil. In an interview with that vehicle, Bonfim pondered that the automaker fulfilled its commitment to generate jobs and that most of those hired are from Bahia, but pointed to the relationship between part of the management and local employees as the main node in the relationship.

Factory was the scene of rescue of workers in 2024

The current tension reopens a chapter that still weighs on the Bahian complex. In December 2024, a task force found Chinese workers in a precarious situation at the automaker’s construction site, hired by the contractor Jinjiang. The Labor Prosecutor’s Office described overcrowded accommodation, retention of passports, exhausting working hours and the deduction of a large part of salaries; At the end of the investigations, the number of rescued reached 220. In May 2025, the