I Worked For Someone Who Lives In The Us (i Live In Brazil), Who Refused Pay The Amount We Settled. Is There Anything I Can Do Legally?

Im a freelancer graphic designer. I’ve been working for nearly 5 months for an American.

I wanted to know if I have any rights. I worked weekends. Week in and week out without seeing sunlight. I almost developed wounds on my legs foot and my backside, the kind of wounds that bedridden people get. I lost my social life, my hobbies, everything. I worked countless hours without overtime. My computer went crazy and I tried to fix it, but it went to a point I knew it was probably hardware and I didn’t have the knowledge to fix. I told my “boss” the day before that I’d take to repair. I couldn’t work either way. The computer was making everything worse because it would make me lose some files, and it became so slow, basically worsening my work efficiency. But I’d rather have a couple of days behind my schedule than being constantly behind. I worked more than 40 hours last weekend alone, and the person fired me because my PC was taking more time than expected to w fixed, and now doesn't want to pay me for the work done before my payday (which would be on the 10th, which was R$1,300 ($ 232) every two weeks). They themselves told me to do the math because in this case, they’d would pay me per job done. But when I sent her the amount R$ 900 ($ 154) she refused to pay and said she would pay one job less, which would make the payment be R$ 500 ($86,07) less.

I developed burnout because of this job, I informed the person, and they even discounted the days I didn't work when I needed to be sedated and hospitalized. I lost an entire two weeks of money because I couldn’t work, because of work.

And now they don't want to pay me what we clearly agreed upon. I sent them messages of our agreement. I have the messages of them saying that she’d wait for me to do the math and pass it to them. It was too much work in a few days; that’s why it was “high price”. They had several things due Monday and I spent more than 40 hours on 4 separated jobs alone.

To avoid making the burnout worse, I blocked them and told them to pay whatever they wanted. Even nothing if they don’t want to. I’m exhausted. I’m angry. I’m done. I’m tired. I want to heal of this burnout. But I’m getting worse. I don’t want to have another mental breakdown. I don't want to have any more contact with this person, unless I want to have another episode of crazy crying/anger, which seems to feed this burnout thing I was diagnosed with.

But now that I've accepted my fate and I'm better off without communicating with the person, it came to my mind, my computer. How am I going to get it out of technical assistance? I basically did slave labor, for R$ 700 (gross) of the minimum wage in my state, in my currency. To end with burnout, without any rights. I regret every decision I didn’t make and the ones I made.

Even if there is, I don't know if I want to waste my already low energy on this, but since they didn't pay me for the days I was sedated, I had to ask my parents for help to buy the burnout medication they gave me the prescription for, and it was nearly R$ 300, and now since they don't want to pay what was agreed, I won't be able to pay for my computer that is stuck in technical support because I can’t pay for it. And seeing how they were functioning, I did put some “rights” on my final cost, like working overnight. But nothing crazy.

My computer is my work tool and the only one. This person "fired me" because my PC was taking too long to be repaired, which is sad. Since they knew that I only worked for them (unless I never slept again, I could have another client).

I lost my dignity, my computer, which will cost R$800.00 to fix, and soon I'll have to buy medicine again (almost R$300.00) and my peace of mind, I still have symptoms of this burnout thing, and I regret every day when I thought it was the chance of my life. I started the job very excited. But now I can see the mistake I made in accepting the offer.

There’s nothing signed, no contract. Just messages on what we agreed on.

I feel stripped of any dignity. I feel exploited by this person person, and if only I’d get paid right, but not even that. Not even the cost I included of my computer, which I used to work for them… That human being wanted to pay me something that wouldn't even cover half of the technical assistance. Or meds. Or anything. Not even would pay for my work, goddamn it!

I don’t know, I wonder if they thought I’d get rich off their backs, or think they're doing some kind of charity while I had no rights whatsoever - but they, as employers, had all of them.

Is there anything I can do? Legally? I need to at least get my computer to go back to me again. That’s what I want. Nothing more. I don’t want trouble. I don’t want a war. I just want what was agreed upon. But by talking I’m not going to convince them.

They’re a public worker. They used my work as if they were their own for the district schools’s social medias. It’s not a company, just a person working for schools doing social media, which I think they didn’t know how to do; and that’s why they needed someone who knew. Idk. Not sure even what their position is inside the district school.