Sexual harassment: Unions accuse Petrobras of negligence – 05/04/2023 – Market

Unions accuse Petrobras of negligence in investigating a sexual harassment complaint that ended up generating a lawsuit filed by the Public Ministry last week. The internal commission that investigated the case acquitted the accused, who was only dismissed after action by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

In November, Sindipetro-RJ (Rio de Janeiro Petroleum Workers Union) sent a letter to the company demanding information about the investigation of the case. The entity also questions why the accused was kept in his duties, even with the risk of embarrassment to the whistleblowers.

Petrobras says it opened an internal investigation as soon as it received the complaint and that the evidence collected by the Public Ministry justified the dismissal. It also reinforced the creation of a working group to review procedures for investigating and preventing cases of harassment.

In all, says the company, there were 81 complaints between 2019 and 2022. “The company’s new management reiterates that it does not tolerate any type of harassment and violence against women, committing to create an environment of trust so that all occurrences are denounced”, says the text.

According to Sindipetro-RJ, four women from a third-party cleaning service company reported harassment at Cenpes (Petrobras Research Center) facilities in September. One of them was allegedly raped – according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the accused allegedly rubbed his penis on the victim’s buttocks on three occasions.

“We know that Petrobras is aware of these incidents, considering that the workers filed a formal complaint in the company’s reporting channels and at the police station”, says the union letter, dated November 7.

The union asked for an explanation of the measures taken in relation to the case, “considering the absurdity of the situation, the suffering, humiliation, compromised self-esteem, insecurity and fear”.

The director of Sindipetro-RJ Natália Russo says that the employee remained performing duties at Cenpes after the complaint. “The worst thing about this case, the company’s negligence, is that the employee was never removed from the victims, who came into contact with the aggressor even after the complaint.”

“There was no social, psychological assistance and no job protection for the victims. One of them even resigned because she couldn’t stand the pressure of living with the abuser.”

The case gave rise to protests from workers and brought to light several reports of harassment suffered at the company, collected by the unions in a WhatsApp group — not all of which were turned into formal complaints.

This Tuesday (4), however, the company confirmed that it had received 81 complaints in the last four years. “The working group will review the internal procedures for dealing with complaints, if failures are identified, it will determine the review of these respective processes”, he says.

The workers complain about the internal procedures for investigating allegations of harassment. In the case investigated by the Public Ministry, says Russo, the victims would have been questioned by a committee made up of three men and one woman.

“We know that there is male protection, which is combined with corporate protection, most managers are men”, she says. At Petrobras, only 17% of the workforce is made up of women. Of managerial roles, only 1 in 5 are held by women.

Coordinator of the Oil Women Collective, Patrícia Jesus Silva says that the number of reports that have emerged in recent days reinforces the perception that there is underreporting of cases of harassment in the company.

“Many times, [as vítimas] are from outsourced companies, and they are afraid of losing their job”, says she, who is a director of the FUP (Federação Único dos Petroleum Workers) and the Union of Petroleum Workers of Espírito Santo.

Petrobras says that the working group will review the procedures for protecting whistleblowers and applying punishments, as well as the attributions of the areas responsible for the investigation. “Actions for awareness and prevention of harassment throughout the company will also be proposed.”

About the case investigated by the MP, the company repeated that it dismissed the accused. “Immediately after receiving the complaints, Petrobras opened an internal investigation and adopted the appropriate measures within the administrative scope. The evidence contained in the MP’s complaint led to the employee’s dismissal.”