Raquel Gurgel | 21 February, 2025

Photo: Reproduction / Viva sem Veneno

This was a tough week for Lídia Maria Bandacheski do Prado, a former tobacco grower who developed an incurable degenerative disease caused by chronic exposure to pesticides. She had been fighting since 2015 in Labor Court in a lawsuit against Alliance One, the tobacco company that had contracted her and her family for over 20 years, supplying and recommending the use of the products that caused her illness (recall the case here). The farmer, who seeks compensation, won favorable decisions in both the trial court and the regional appellate level. However, last Wednesday, the judges of the Superior Labor Court (TST, in Portuguese) ruled unanimously that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. The case was referred to the Common Court – where, according to Mrs. do Prado's lawyer, Vania Moreira dos Santos, it is highly likely to drag on for another long decade. And, even worse, with no guarantee of resolution.

Mrs. do Prado suffers from organophosphate-induced delayed polyneuropathy, a disease characterized by cramps, pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, and reduced reflexes in the lower limbs, which can also affect the arms. Lídia’s condition is so severe that she can no longer walk and depends on a wheelchair. Ten years ago, when her condition was declared permanent by a medical report, she decided to file a lawsuit against Alliance One.

There was a very important reason why her lawyer chose to start the case in the Labor Court: she had previously represented Valdemar Santos, another former tobacco grower diagnosed with polyneuropathy, in a case against Universal Leaf Tobacco that began in 2002 in Common Court. However, in 2013, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ruled that the case should be transferred to Labor Court. At the time, discouraged by the prospect of having to fight for even more time, Mr. Santos accepted a settlement offer from Universal to close the case. For Mrs. dos Santos, the lesson was to start the next case in the Labor Court. It didn't help.

During the trial, Minister Hugo Scheuermann, president of the Court and rapporteur of the case, justified his vote by citing previous rulings – both related to tobacco farming and other agricultural activities based on purchase and sale contracts – in which the Labor Court had made the same decision. "We cannot judge this matter, due to constitutional restrictions," he said.

The companies argue that the contracts they maintain with farmers are of a civil nature, not implying a work relationship. Virtually all tobacco production in Brazil is done under a model called the Integrated Production System. The companies establish purchase and sale contracts with farmers, who have little or no autonomy within the production chain. They determine the inputs to be used, market these products to the farmers, provide technical assistance, control the prices paid for the tobacco grown, and buy the production at the end of the harvest. The farmers' role is simply to comply with the requirements. "How can you say that this is not a work relationship?" questioned Mrs. dos Santos, pointing out that farmers often do not even understand clearly the contracts they sign.

"No one wants to judge these cases"

Before the judges, the lawyer highlighted the passing of the case: "I want to make clear that, in other cases I’ve had, we entered Common Court, which sent it to Labor Court. In this situation, I need you to help me find God’s address. Because I think only God can do something for Lídia and judge this case. If we see this [the rapporteur’s vote] succeed, we’ll have yet another case where there’s no way out or solution. No one wants to judge these cases and the damage caused to farmers," she said, shortly after Scheuermann's vote.

She also read a letter written by Lídia the day before: “Tomorrow will be the big day, the day of judgment for my case, the judgment for the rights of so many people, so many lives that by this decision will be condemned or will have victories and rights. If it’s unfavorable, we’ll be condemned to the sentence of living and carrying the weight of the stones, the heavy burden of diseases that, once caused, come to the family. And they leave us in the prison of freedom, unable to work and live,” she wrote. The use of the collective in the letter made perfect sense: a favorable decision in the TST would set an important precedent for other farmers in similar situations.

Lídia’s letter and her journey were questioned by Minister Luiz José Dezena da Silva, when he announced his vote in agreement with the rapporteur: “I cannot imagine that this person does not have clarity – as the noble lawyer said – that this person signed a document she doesn’t understand, and makes a letter of that quality. That is, this person who wrote such a quality letter is aware and conscious of everything that’s going on and, if she signed something, she knows what she signed. Or else it wasn’t her who wrote this letter.”

Mrs. do Prado, who began working in tobacco fields as a child, recalled this statement later, in a conversation with our Knowledge Hub’s team: “I felt bad when the minister questioned whether I was the one who wrote the letter. But I say yes: the 9-year-old girl grew up. The disease, the pain, the suffering made the girl lose her smile, her simple way of seeing life. It transformed me. And the harshness of my days taught me what no school will.”

This week's decision is not the end of the road for Mrs. do Prado and her lawyer, but the future is uncertain. Mrs. dos Santos even says that there is a risk that the Common Court might consider the case as prescribed. "We don’t know what will happen," she summarizes. 

The only positive point of the TST decision for Mrs. do Prado was the temporary maintenance, until the Common Court rules on it, of an injunction that requires Alliance One to pay her a monthly amount – about US$ 1,000 – to cover the minimum treatment necessary to alleviate the symptoms of her disease. 

“I hope to find this so-called Justice that I’m seeking one day, because it’s not fair that this burden is mine alone, since I spent my days, my nights working for a better life, a dignified life, and what I got was just the heavy burden and scars that work left, with the loss of my health. And now all that’s left is the fight for rights and Justice. I hope I can still see Justice happen in my life and in this case,” Mrs. do Prado says.

If the Common Court also declares itself incompetent to judge the case, Mrs. dos Santos believes it will be up to the STJ, or even the Federal Supreme Court (STF), to define which branch of the judiciary should be responsible for this type of judgment. “The fact is that the decision will still be postponed for many years,” she concludes.

About 200,000 families in the country are dedicated to tobacco farming, exposed to health risks and subjected to contracts designed by the companies. While the country’s Justice system does not resolve the impasse, all farmers who fall ill from working in tobacco fields will remain unsupported, unable to hold the industry accountable for their diseases and injuries.

 

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The information and views set out on this news are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, or the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC.