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The automaker was convicted due to harassment and discrimination practices against injured workers.

From the Editors

 

Friday, October 4, 2024

 

Updated at 12:56

 

The 11th Chamber of the TRT of the 15th Region unanimously ordered Mercedes-Benz to pay R$40 million for collective moral damages, due to acts of harassment and discrimination against its employees. In addition to the compensation, the panel also imposed a fine on the company for obligations to do and not to do, in the amount of R$100 thousand per day, in case of non-compliance, for each employee who was the victim of harassment or discrimination, or a daily fine of R$10 thousand, depending on the obligation not fulfilled.

 

The public civil action was filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office of the 15th Region, which investigated Mercedes-Benz after reports that workers injured as a result of their work were being isolated inside the factory in Campinas/SP during the rehabilitation process and exposed to humiliating and humiliating situations. The lawsuit also reported cases of racial discrimination.

 

The 12th Labor Court of Campinas had dismissed the requests made by the MPT in the action, which also involves the Union of Workers in the Metallurgical, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronic Material and Fiber Optic Industries of Campinas, Americana .

 

In the ruling that reformed the first instance sentence, the rapporteur, judge Luís Henrique Rafael, stated that "the Labor Prosecutor's Office describes the identification of a chronological line of the treatment given to sick workers based on witness statements: in the first instance, workers are victims of isolation, even physical isolation, being deprived of opportunities for professional advancement, salary increases, promotions, and being allocated to a 'G 'frozen' within the

The judge also highlighted that the repeated behavior of the appellant and its employees demonstrates a true cult of 'ableism', seeking to establish which bodies are suitable and their possibilities, as well as which are not. It is worth noting that these practices even reveal conduct typified in Article 88 of Law No. 13,146/2015, which recognizes discrimination based on disability as a crime. Accepting the practices carried out as 'isolated facts', as the company claims, would represent a serious social setback that would hinder constitutional guarantees to the rights of people with disabilities.

 

The second instance decision determines that the compensation amount will be allocated to a social institution indicated by the MPT.

 

Mercedes-Benz fined R$40 million for collective moral harassment. (Image: Reproduction/Facebook Mercedes-Benz)

Obligations to do and not to do

 

Mercedes-Benz must comply with more than 12 obligations, including the end of moral harassment practices, mainly against rehabilitated workers; the creation of internal programs to prevent harassment and discrimination, such as diagnoses of the work environment, adoption of intervention strategies, training and lectures; the creation of mediation processes and monitoring of the conduct of harassers; and the implementation of standards of conduct and an internal ombudsman to deal with cases of harassment, among others.

 

Case:  0010910-78.2019.5.15.0131

 

link: https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/416660/mercedes-benz-e-condenada-em-r-40-milhoes-por-assedio-moral-coletivo