Two-thirds of sexual harassment lawsuits in the federal administration go unpunished.

Two out of every three investigations into sexual harassment in the federal public administration ended without any penalty, according to data provided by the CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União) at the request of the Federal Government. Sheet.

From 2008 to June 2022, 905 correctional proceedings were initiated to investigate cases of sexual harassment, of which 633 were completed and another 272 are still in progress.

Among the investigations already completed, 432 came to an end without punishment, which represents 65.7% of the total. The others resulted in a warning (41), suspension (90) or dismissal (95) of the aggressor.

The sum of penalties (including their absence) is greater than the total number of cases because in some investigations more than one public agent was involved.

The CGU survey includes processes initiated within the scope of direct administration, autarchies and foundations, which includes ministries, regulatory agencies and federal universities.

The data does not include public companies, such as Caixa Econômica Federal, the scene of the most recent accusations of sexual harassment made by employees against the now former president of the institution Pedro Guimarães.

The accusations were revealed on Tuesday (28) by the Metrópoles portal, which also reported the existence of an investigation by the Federal Public Ministry. After the disclosure, the case came under the sights of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors) and the MPT (Public Ministry of Labor).

The women narrated episodes such as intimate touches without consent, invitations incompatible with the professional environment and other inappropriate behavior.

A Caixa employee said in a statement to Sheet who was also harassed by Guimarães, president of the institution, in a case hitherto unknown to the authorities. After the first complaints, the number of women who report being harassed at the bank has increased.

In government sectors, there are fears that the practice has become an organizational culture within Caixa. The bank hired an external audit to deepen the investigations, and the new president, Daniella Marques, promises rigor in the investigations.

The number of sexual harassment lawsuits in the federal administration grew steadily until 2019, when it peaked at 243 new filings. In 2020, remote work contributed to the drop in numbers, although experts point out that there was, in parallel, an increase in cases of domestic violence.

According to the CGU, the initiation of the process is not immediate. The so-called “correctional procedure” is opened after a preliminary analysis by the ombudsman, which verifies whether the complaint contains the necessary elements. An admissibility judgment is also carried out in the correctional area, which concludes or not by the need for verification.

Even with this prior analysis, two-thirds of cases end without penalty. “Archival cases may have their cause in the non-configuration [da prática de assédio]in the absence of evidence, among other factors”, says the CGU.

Punishments, on the other hand, are generally applied after the agent has been framed for “non-compliance with functional duties”, since the practice of sexual harassment is not foreseen as a disciplinary infraction in Law 8.112/1990, which provides for the legal regime for civil servants. of the Union.

Despite the upward trend in the number of cases that investigate sexual harassment in the public administration, experts say that many cases are still far from the authorities’ radar, given the difficulty of victims in reporting what happened.

“A complaint, even more linked to a work relationship and power relationship, is always difficult by nature. In the case of a complaint of sexual harassment, there are elements that make it even more difficult. There are cases of women who are blamed, or feel ashamed “, says lawyer Tainã Gois, PhD in Law from USP (University of São Paulo) and policy advisor for women at São Paulo City Hall.

“Women’s morals are often questioned. The sexual harassment whistleblower has to prove all the time that she can be a victim. She will first be judged”, says Gois.

For her, the non-punishment in two-thirds of the cases for sexual harassment in the public administration may indicate difficulty in being able to give consequence to the actions of these agents. However, she considers that, even in the absence of a formal penalty, the accused may, for example, end up being transferred from office.

MPT prosecutor Andrea Gondim, national coordinator for the Promotion of Regularity of Work in Public Administration, assesses that there is still a culture of violence and harassment against women widespread in Brazilian society, which ends up being transported to the work environment.

“This everyday violence also happens in our work environment, from the interruption of the woman’s speech by the man, the appropriation of ideas, to this escalation of violence that can reveal itself through unwanted sexual behavior”, she says.

“Although several companies and agencies have channels to denounce this type of violence, often these channels do not work or end up not giving an effective response to the situation, which ends up deepening the problem”, adds Gondim. According to her, the feeling that the prosecution is ineffective can discourage future complaints.

The underreporting of sexual harassment cases is mentioned in a thematic study on the correctional treatment of sexual harassment, carried out by CGU auditor Sandra Yumi Miada in 2020. Among the barriers are the fear of reprisal or retaliation (such as dismissal and demotion), fear of transference, fear of extreme exposure in the work and family environment, difficulty in approaching the subject or discredit in the face of the victim’s report.

In the study, the auditor focused on 49 of the proceedings initiated to investigate the conduct of sexual harassment in the federal administration and which were concluded in the period from January 2015 to October 2019.

In 96.15% of the cases, the victims were female. The aggressors were male in 100% of the analyzed episodes. In 32% of the cases, the victims were minors.

In the study, the rate of punishment of disciplinary proceedings for sexual harassment was 38.78% – reaching 51.35% when cases whose analysis was impaired in the study due to the lack of information on their outcome.

The conclusions of the work were cited by the TCU in an open performance audit in 2020 to prepare a radiography of the topic. One of the results was the formulation of a model for preventing and combating harassment, with the recommendation of best practices.

After the complaints against Guimarães, the TCU opened a specific inspection to evaluate the entire policy of preventing and combating sexual harassment at Caixa.

“The best situation for women is not to be harassed. Punishment is an answer for the victim, but the answer for society is a transformation of the work environment, of the institutional environment”, says lawyer Tainã Gois.

Andrea Gondim, from the MPT, points out that Brazil has not yet adhered to Convention 190 of the ILO (International Labor Organization), which establishes legal concepts and definitions to deal with moral and sexual harassment in the work environment, whether in the public sector or in the private sector. “It would be an excellent instrument to address the issue”, she says.

According to her, the MPT was one of the signatories of a letter to the Presidency of the Republic asking the government to send Congress a proposal for ratification of the convention, so that it can be applied in Brazil, but this has not yet occurred.