Quem nomina, domina: o conceito de assédio sexual ambiental no Brasil

Abstract

This research concerns the fundamental women rights within labor relations in Brazil. Today, according to data from Agência Patrícia Galvão, one in four women resigns due to gender harassment. Currently, the doctrine and the higher labor court in Brazil (TST) understand that there are two types of sexual harassment at work: a) environmental or intimidating and; b) by blackmail. The first being object of Labor Law and the second being object of Criminal Law. Rodolfo Pamplona Filho, frequently mentioned in the TST rulings, defines environmental sexual harassment as: “[...] any unwanted conduct of sexual nature that, although repelled by the recipient, is continually reiterated, restricting their sexual freedom”. It turns out that, in 2023, the government began the process of ratifying convention no. 190 of the ILO, which brings a broader concept of sexual harassment, including gender harassment as a subtype of sexual harassment, and bringing the idea of intersectionality. In addition to its social relevance, to help the population understand what environmental sexual harassment is, the research addresses this topic which, despite being structural, is still little discussed within the legal sphere. The qualitative approach was used as a methodology, as the search was for the subjective elements of the aforementioned concept in the TST rulings, as well as in the literature on the subject. The logical basis of the work is inductive, as it starts from a particular data to a broader conclusion. The objective of the dissertation was to investigate to what extent the requirements that define this type of harassment can be identified as discriminatory towards women. The technique chosen was documentary, with the object of research being the universe of 16 rulings, on environmental sexual harassment, from a local labor court in Brazil (TRT7). Among these, half were considered non-serious by the court. A deeper jurisprudential analysis was carried out over 4 rulings in which the harassment was considered non-serious and there is, at the same time, evidence of gender harassment including gendered racism. There has been a recording of the three main elements of each ruling: facts, reasoning and decision. The data found were: i) more than half of the rulings analyzed (3/4) use the concept of environmental sexual harassment developed by Rodolfo Pamplona Filho, which is also adopted by the TST; ii) in all of these cases (4/4), the victim's rejection was considered insufficient by the judge and; iii) half of these cases (2/4) were considered non-serious because the judge understood that there was a romantic relationship between the parties. There was also an analysis of testimonies from victims of harassment on the @expjuridico Instagram profile. Out of the 17 anonymous testimonies, 10 of them deal with gender harassment, the most common according to this sample.