PL deputy is ordered to pay R$80,000 for electoral harassment

The Labor Court in Goiás sentenced federal deputy Gustavo Gayer (PL-GO) to pay R$80,000 for moral damages. He was accused by the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT) of electoral harassment in a labor context during the second round of the 2022 elections.

According to the MPT, Gayer held meetings with employees from several companies to promote “irregular electoral propaganda” for then-reelection candidate Jair Bolsonaro. In one of the cases, Gayer went to a bakery, at the owner’s request, and held a meeting with employees to talk about “the proposals of the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic”.

Last year, after receiving an anonymous complaint, prosecutors filed an injunction with the Labor Court to prevent new meetings from being held during the election period, and the request for suspension was accepted.

Last Sunday (25), judge Celismar Coelho de Figueiredo, from the 7th Labor Court of Goiânia, handed down a sentence to sentence the deputy to pay compensation of R$80,000.

“The documentary evidence, presented by the MPT, makes clear the practice of electoral moral harassment in the workplace, perpetrated by the defendant against workers from several business companies based in this capital, morally coercing them to vote for a specific candidate as a means of maintaining and creation of jobs, if said candidate were re-elected”, wrote the judge.

On a video posted on social media, Gayer considered the conviction “odd” and confirmed that he will appeal. The deputy said that he was invited by businesspeople to explain the “candidates’ government plan” and did not ask for votes for Bolsonaro. He says that he even questioned his lawyers at the time to find out whether there would be a problem or not, who confirmed that there was no risk and that it was within the law.

“Now they caught me doing something unthinkable in this relative democracy. I got caught [ao processo] several witnesses, employees and former employees of the companies. All saying that I didn’t coerce, that I didn’t ask for a vote and that none of them were forced to be there. I believe that what is happening is a lot of persecution,” she concluded.

In the video, Gayer showed headlines of left-wing politicians holding meetings at various companies during the campaign and mentions that “none were convicted”.