The MPT (Public Ministry of Labor) sent this Thursday (16) a notification to the president of Caixa Econômica Federal, Pedro Guimarães, in which it recommends that he not subject public bank employees to push-ups and “to other situations of embarrassment at work”.
On Tuesday (14), during an annual event called Nação Caixa, Guimarães forced public bank executives to do push-ups and give stars, like Olympic gymnasts. The meeting was held at the Hotel Bourbon, in Atibaia, in the interior of São Paulo.
The labor prosecutor in the Federal District, Paulo Neto, who signs the document, states that this type of conduct places Guimarães “under penalty of instigation of an investigative procedure at the Public Ministry of Labor and the adoption and appropriate administrative and/or judicial measures to correct the conduct.”
The recommendatory notification, the formal name of the document, says that if Guimarães does not comply with the notification, he may be held liable in the civil, criminal and administrative spheres.
The labor attorney cites, in the recommendation, a precedent from the TST (Superior Labor Court) that considered the conduct of an employer that determined that the employee to do push-ups was abusive and reprehensible. He also says that “moral harassment is psychological violence, having the power to produce serious consequences for the mental health of workers.”
A video recorded at the Caixa meeting went viral on social media after a post by the bank workers’ union and after publication by the Metrópoles portal. Pedro Guimarães, president of Caixa, appears to command some of its main executives with a motivational tone.
The recording begins with an employee being encouraged to give a star under the command of a child who, apparently, is a gymnast. She fails and is replaced by a second employee who also gives up. Finally, a third party performs the move clumsily.
On Thursday, the Union of Bank Workers and Finance Workers of São Paulo, Osasco and Region decided to forward to the MPT a complaint of institutional moral harassment practiced by the bank’s management. In a joint note, the union, Contraf-CUT (confederation of bank workers) and Fenae (federation of cashiers) rated the bank president’s conduct as “extremely embarrassing.”
The push-ups summoned by Guimarães are a nod to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who, on yet another occasion, encouraged the same practice.
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