The federal civil service does not have a centralized channel to receive specific complaints of moral and sexual harassment, which are more sensitive in nature than other types of complaints. This lack of structure can drive away, and with that silence, the victims.
That’s the conclusion of the lawyer and consultant for gender equity Myrelle Jacob in her master’s thesis, due to be completed in November. The study started two years ago as a consultancy work for the World Bank and analyzed the complaints mechanisms adopted by the states of the federation. The objective of the study now advances to the Federal Executive.
The researcher explains that the statute that regulates the disciplinary part of federal servants, Law 8,112/90, does not provide for harassment as an infraction or as a punishable conduct.
Despite this, there are several channels for complaints spread by federal agencies. This, however, is a problem, according to the lawyer.
“It causes more confusion. With the lack of a specific channel, the complaint can get lost, go to the wrong place or even end up in the hands of the aggressor. The server doesn’t feel confident”, says Myrelle.
Another setback is the internal management of administrative and disciplinary proceedings in federal agencies, not having a professional specialized in recognizing and collecting valid evidence to open a case. This situation leaves the servers unprotected, in his opinion.
“The official [que recebe a denúncia] unable to instruct and give initial support to the victim. In general, he doesn’t even know which statute conduct that situation falls under in order for it to result in punishment. This topic is not treated with due importance”, says the researcher.
The percentage of complaints involving sexual harassment increased in 2018 and 2019, according to data on the disciplinary administrative processes (PADs) that Myrelle used in the research, available on the CGU Open Data Portal (Controladoria-Geral da União), obtained via the ombudsman. .
In 2017, sexual complaint PADs accounted for 12.6% of harassment cases. The following year, that number jumped to 39.2%, peaking in 2019 at 48.8%. Most were terminated without punishment. Archival is one of the main reasons for low accountability.
The complaints, however, decreased in the following two years. One of the explanations would be remote work, more frequent from 2020 onwards because of the pandemic, according to Vera Monteiro, professor of administrative law at FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas) and advisor to Instituto República.org.
“Although the Comptroller already tried to centralize harassment data, there was no obligation for federal agencies to notify CGU of the opening of these processes until 2018”, says the professor.
According to Vera, caution is needed in the analysis. “Probably this reality is even more cruel. If there was a single base of this data, we would have a more faithful cut.”
Non-accountability and archiving may also occur due to the difficulty in producing evidence. “Common situations in cases of harassment could be minimized with information campaigns”, says Myrelle.
She recalls recent cases, such as the president of Caixa Econômica Federal, Pedro Guimarães – who resigned after accusations of sexual and moral harassment against him came to light – and the anesthesiologist caught raping a woman on the delivery table.
“It’s desperate that footage like that has to be done so that the nurses [que já desconfiavam da conduta do médico] were heard. The victim had his video exposed on the internet. But it was an act of desperation by the hospital staff so that the suspect could receive punishment,” says Myrelle.
harassment at work
Legal advisor Maria (not her real name) says she suffered bullying at work. She is afraid of suffering reprisals at the public agency where she has worked for years.
There has been a recent change in management and Maria says that she began to suffer harassment from the new boss, who called her into her office to question her opinions and have them redone.
Anguish began to take hold of Maria every time the boss called her name.
She began to doubt her competence, which shook her self-esteem. A month ago, she started therapy to overcome the trauma, as she still didn’t have the courage to report it because she didn’t feel safe.
Reporting harassment is a relatively new topic, according to Myrelle. She explains that it was only in 2001 that sexual harassment in the workplace was considered a crime in Brazil.
Since then, of the 27 federative units, only 4 have included sexual and moral harassment in their statutes: Distrito Federal, Mato Grosso, Goiás and Tocantins — the latter just the moral one.
“The expectation is that all statutes reformed after this law will at least include sexual harassment, but that did not happen,” says the lawyer.
Myrelle cites a case that she considers positive in the DF. “They created a commission that screens harassment complaints. It is not a single channel, but today it is the most modern we have.”
The FGV professor says that harassment causes damage to the State. For Vera, acts that restrict the actions and initiatives of employees go against productivity.
“It tends to generate absent, less engaged and less efficient servers and managers. This jeopardizes the provision of public service to the citizen. It becomes a deficient system, a less efficient State.”
​The National Human Rights Ombudsman, linked to the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, states that it receives, examines, forwards and monitors the measures related to complaints and claims about human rights violations and violence against women.
Sought, the Ministry of Justice did not respond.
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