New law establishes measures to combat sexual harassment at work

On September 22, Provisional Presidential Decree No. 1,116/2022 was voted into Law No. 14,457/2022, creating the Emprega+ Mulheres program (Employ+ Women, in free translation) to promote a healthy, safe work environment and for women to enter and continue in the labor market. The program also supports parenting and female professional qualification, establishing measures to prevent and combat sexual harassment, in addition to other forms of violence in the workplace.

Under the rules of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security’s Regulatory Norm No. 5, of Ordinance No. 3.214/1978, to promote a healthy, safe environment that favors the insertion and maintenance of women in the labor market, companies that need to set up an Internal Commission for the Prevention of Accidents and Harassment (CIPA) must pay attention to specific procedures indicated in the law, as follows:

• Include rules of conduct among the company’s internal rules;
• Establish procedures for receiving and monitoring complaints, for investigating facts, and – when applicable – for applying administrative sanctions to those, directly and indirectly, responsible for acts of sexual harassment and violence, guaranteeing the anonymity of the complainant, without prejudice to the procedures applicable legal matters;
• Include topics related to preventing and combating sexual harassment and other forms of violence in the CIPA’s activities and practices;
• Provide training, guidance, and awareness-raising actions for employees at all hierarchical levels of the company on topics related to harassment — for at least 12 months — in accessible and effective formats.

Given the mandatory nature of these measures, companies that already adopt policies and mechanisms to prevent sexual harassment and other forms of violence will have 180 days to review their internal rules and meet the new legal requirements.

Companies facing judicial convictions or that have entered into Conduct Adjustment Agreements (TAC) with the Labor Prosecution Office will also need to review the terms and conditions of existing obligations, especially considering the need to comply with the new legislation’s standards, which may lead to the need to take legal action to align the existing obligations with the new set of rules introduced by the law.

Companies and organizations that do not yet have policies related to the work environment and the prevention of harassment and are obliged to establish and maintain a CIPA will also have 180 days to comply with these new rules.

The new law also creates the Emprega + Mulher Seal, intended to recognize companies adopting initiatives to provide and maintain daycare centers and preschools to meet the needs of their female employees and other good practices, such as:

• Encouraging the hiring and occupation of women in leadership positions, especially in areas with low female participation;
• Promoting equal division of parental responsibilities;
• Promoting a culture of equality between women and men;
• Offering flexible working arrangements;
• Granting licenses for women and men that allow them to care for and bond with their children;
• Supporting female employees, regardless of whether they have a working relationship or provide services at the location, facing harassment, physical, psychological violence, or any other type of improper conduct at work;
• Implementing programs to hire unemployed women in situations of domestic and family violence and supporting female employees under these conditions.

The Emprega+ Mulher seal will be regulated by the Minister of Labor and Social Security. However, it is recommended that any existing policies be reviewed considering the macro aspects introduced by the new law.

The new law brings an innovative approach to parenting by conceptualizing it as a “maternal, paternal or any other socio-affective bond that results in the legal assumption of shared parental activities between those responsible for providing care and education to children and adolescents”. This definition overcomes the gender bias that mainly links early childhood education to the female gender by adopting the shared responsibility as determined by the Child and Adolescent Statute (Law No. 8,069/1990).

Among the initiatives to support parenting, employers must implement measures to support female and male employees, regardless of their gender, based only on the criterion of whether they have children, which can lead to the need to review policies and other commitments made by the employer.

After the maternity leave period ends, male employees can request the suspension of the employment contract to provide care for and bond with their children, monitor their development and support their wives or partners. It is important to highlight that, in this section, the law focuses on male employees, not being specific on how the parenting benefit can be exercised by people of different genders or in non-heteronormative relationships. The law also ignores its adopted concept of parenting by not including family models other than biparental ones — excluding other people responsible for the education of children and adolescents.

For more information on this matter, please contact Mattos Filhos’ Labor & Employment, Compliance & Corporate Ethics and ESG practice areas.