July 10 (UPI) -- Brazilian labor authorities rescued a 62-year-old woman from conditions they described as analogous to slavery after she spent more than five decades working as an unpaid domestic worker for the same family in the northeastern state of Ceará.
The rescue was carried out by Brazil's Labor Inspection Office, part of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, after an anonymous complaint came through the government's hotline for reporting labor abuses.
Labor officials told local media the woman, whose identity was not disclosed, performed household duties and cared for the family's children. Her daily routine began around 4:30 a.m. as she prepared breakfast and got the children ready for school. She worked for 55 years without receiving a salary.
According to O Globo, the Labor Inspection Office found that the woman began working for the family at age 7 and remained employed continuously across three generations.
Throughout that period, she received no regular wages, had no financial independence and was denied the educational and economic opportunities available to members of the employing family.
