Hundreds of Brazilian companies were recently slapped with fines for employment methods equivalent to modern day slave labor.

In an article from AG Week, the ministry of labor in Brazil reportedly fined 340 Brazilian companies for engaging in unjust hiring practices. This is in addition to being involved in forced labor and having workers operate in degrading conditions for minimal or no pay in both urban and rural regions.

According to Leonardo Sakamoto, head of Reporter Brazil, a non-government anti-slavery group based in Sau Paulo, they used the Freedom of Information Act to expose the individuals and companies that were engaged in unfair labor practices. Slave labor in Brazil is defined as work done in degrading conditions that expose employees to health and life risks.

Reporter Brazil came out with a “dirty list” of the 340 Brazilian firms that employed individuals in slave-like conditions from May 2013 to May 2015. Many of the workers were forced to toil in sweatshops, construction companies, charcoal production, farms, timber companies, cattle ranches and others.

"We don't know yet if children were enslaved. We are still analyzing the list. And we can't say yet if the construction companies are involved in building works for the Olympics," Sakamoto said in a report by AOL.

AG Week also reported that the “dirty list” of employers published by the labor ministry has been an important tool in countering slavery in Brazil. Reporter Brazil adds that it is being used as a reference by the United Nations.

The blacklist was initiated in November 2003, which showed hundreds of individuals and companies who were compelling people to work under unideal conditions.Blacklisted employers are then prevented from acquiring government loans and are also restricted from product sale. A blacklisted company has to pay all its fines and prove that its working conditions have been enhanced for two years before it is given clearance to resume operations.

In 2014, the Supreme Court of Brazil ordered the suspension of the release of the blacklist to the public. Reporter Brazil is reportedly attempting to have it published publicly again. The NGO currently uses freedom of information laws, particularly Articles 10, 11 and 12 of the Access to Information Act (12527/2012) and Article 5 of the 1988 Federal Constitution, to expose the information to the public. This will help people decide whether or not to support certain companies.