In a historic decision, the Brazilian Labor Court condemns the company for institutional racism
- Monique Prado
- 21 de jun de 2021
- 3 min de leitura
After losing in the 1st Instance and having his Appeal dismissed in the 2nd instance, on December 4, 2020, the Superior Labor Court, after recognizing the social importance of the cause, sentenced in a historic decision, by a majority of the votes against a large laboratory for the practice of racial discrimination against one of its employees.
The worker, who has already left the company, filed a lawsuit seeking pain and suffering, as during the labor agreement she was prohibited from using her natural hair and Black Power under the justification that she "was not within the institution's rules".
The harassment suffered was practiced by the manager who intervened in the worker's right to freely use her hair based on the company's visual standardization guide, a document that even had only white people in the manual. This institutional distinction had a direct impact on the identity, individuality and representation of black workers, as the guide established a distorted pattern of the Brazilian reality, which is composed of 56% of black people according to data from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica - IGBE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) from 2018.
Institutional and structural racism was also used as an argument in the Court's decision, where Judge Delaíde Miranda Arantes stated: “It should be noted that in the current stage of development of our society, all forms of discrimination must be fought, especially the most subtle of be detected in its nature, as institutional or structural discrimination, which instead of being practiced by individuals, is committed by institutions, whether private or public, intentionally or not, negatively affecting a certain racial group. This is what we saw in this specific case under examination, when the visual standardization guide adopted by the defendant, even if unintentionally, fails to include black people, having a negative effect on black employees, that's why the claimant must receive payment of indemnity for moral damages. ”
The ethnic-racial theme expanded throughout 2020 due to the tragic episode of George Floyd, the judge admitted in the decision: “In the current historical moment of human rights, the principle of non-discrimination gains special protection, both internationally and in the Brazilian internal scene”.
The judge evoked international and national legal provisions, alluding to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Convention 111 of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Nationally, she established an understanding regarding the violation of the Federal Constitution, Law 9,029 of 95, which says about the prohibition of discrimination in the work environment and also the Racial Equality Statute, established by Law 12,288 of 2010.
The decision is cause for celebration not only by the black and anti-racist movement, but also by the entire Brazilian society, since the appropriation by the judiciary of the intellectual production of black authors as well as of international agreements to which Brazil is a signatory, emphasizes the pedagogical character of judicial decisions. Besides, it leverages the public debate on racial discussions so that racism is not just an issue for black people.
Thus, racism cannot be treated only from a pathological and individual point of view, but equally the principles of historical recognition and reparation must be enforced, which was rightly done in the outcome of this case, as the Supreme Labor Court recognized the violation the right to personality suffered by the worker and she also argued that racism within organizations and institutions was inadmissible, appropriating what is most contemporary in the current literature on the ethnic-racial agenda.
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