Oil companies report cases of harassment at Petrobras – 03/04/2023 – Market

The complaint of a Petrobras employee for sexual harassment at the end of March brought to light a series of reports from oil companies that claim they had been harassed, leading the company’s management to promise investigations and measures to face the problem.

In the reports, initially released by Globonews, the women say they have experienced situations of harassment by superiors or other co-workers, in some cases during periods on board production platforms.

In one, a maid says she had to close the door with a chair to prevent men from entering the rooms. She also says that a friend found a colleague touching her panties.

Another says she was grabbed by a manager when they were returning from a party together. In another report, a woman claims that the manager failed to act when a receptionist had her breast felt by an employee.

The cases came to light after the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro denounced an employee of Cenpes (Petrobras Research Center) for harassment and sexual harassment against a woman who provided services to the state-owned company.

According to the complaint, he took advantage of having a higher hierarchical position than the victim and used to show off his badge and “began to embarrass her insistently, even with her refusal”. Three times, he would have rubbed his penis on the victim’s buttocks, says the Prosecutor’s Office.

The complaint was made on March 22. This Saturday (1st), after the emergence of new reports, the president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, called a meeting with company managers to discuss the problem.

He promised that internal complaints “will have guarantees of non-retaliation, protection of victims’ privacy, rigorous investigation and application of sanctions when applicable”. “We will not tolerate any type of violence,” he said in a letter to employees.

The FUP (Single Federation of Petroleum Workers) released this Monday (3) a statement demanding the management of the state-owned company. “It’s no use for the company to campaign to encourage the complaint if it itself doesn’t deal sensibly with the situation”, says the director of the federation, Cibele Vieira.

“When a woman denounces abuse, whether physical or emotional, she tends to be discredited by the people around her”, adds, in the statement, the director of the Oil Workers’ Union of Northern Fluminense, Bárbara Bezerra.

“I’ve been through situations like that myself on the platform and the first question they asked is if I was ‘flirting’ with someone. It’s an absurd disrespect! We just want to work in peace.”

In the letter released on Saturday, Prates promised new measures to prevent and combat harassment. “Where there is an opportunity for improvement and more rigor in this confrontation, we will promote changes”, he said.

In a note, Petrobras says that the employee denounced for harassment was dismissed from the company. “Immediately after receiving the complaints, Petrobras opened an internal investigation and adopted the appropriate measures within the administrative scope”, he says.