The Fernando Couto cork company, based in Santa Maria da Feira, in the Aveiro district, was sentenced to pay compensation of five thousand euros to the worker Cristina Tavares who was a victim of workplace harassment, it was announced this Monday.
During a press conference held this morning at the headquarters of the Northern Cork Workers Union, Cristina Tavares said that “this fight was worth it.”
“My goal was never money, it was really the company that paid for the moral harassment it did to me. The most important thing was to demonstrate what I went through there,” said the worker, who currently continues to perform her duties at the company.
Contacted by Lusa, the company sent a reaction to its lawyer who clarified that they are analyzing the ruling of the Feira Labor Court that this month set the amount of compensation to be paid by the corticeira for moral harassment at five thousand euros.
“The company is still considering whether or not to appeal this decision.”, said the lawyer, recalling that the cork company reached an agreement with Cristina Tavares in 2019, when the worker was reinstated to her job and, since then, “there has never been any problem”.
This is a claim that the worker filed against the company Fernando Couto Cortiças to claim a compensation of 80 thousand euros for moral damage derived from moral harassment that he claims to have suffered, from May 2018 to July 1, 2019.
The case began to be tried in the Labor Court of Feira, in May 2021, but before the sentence was handed down, Porto Relação acquitted the company, after an appeal filed by the cork company.
Dissatisfied with the decision, Cristina Tavares appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, which, in October 2022, ruled in her favor and ordered that the case be returned to the first instance so that the amount of compensation can be set, but only for the period of the second dismissal, from January 10, 2019 to July 1 of the same year, when the worker was reinstated.
“Justice was done,” said the coordinator of the Portuguese Federation of Construction, Ceramics and Glass Unions (FEVICCOM), Fátima Messias, about the decision of the Feira Labor Court that this month set the amount of compensation to be paid at five thousand euros. Pay the cork company for moral harassment of the worker.
The FEVICCOM coordinator also warned that The problem of workplace harassment continues to affect “thousands of workers”, mostly womencalling for “rapid and effective” legislative changes.
“It is time for the Government to assume its responsibilities and move from discovery to action. It is necessary that the practice of workplace harassment be classified as a crime and integrated into the penal code, since we are facing situations of effective violence and aggression against the physical and mental integrity of the victims”, he defended.
The union leader also considered it “imperative” to reverse the burden of proof for any type of harassment and not only when it is based on reasons and factors of discrimination.
He also defended the creation of an effective witness protection system that contributes to facilitating the means of proof in cases of workplace harassment, the regulation of occupational diseases derived from workplace harassment and the ratification of Convention 190 of the International Labor Organization on elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work, approved in 2019.
Cristina Tavares was fired for the first time in January 2017, allegedly for having exercised her maternity and family assistance rights, but the Court considered the dismissal illegal and ordered her reinstatement to the company.
Two years later, the company fired her again, accusing her of defamation, after being fined by the Work Conditions Authority (ACT), which determined that the worker had been assigned unproductive tasks, loading and unloading the same bags of caps. cork, for several months.
As of June 2019, The company agreed to reinstate the worker before the start of the trial aimed at challenging the second dismissal.
In addition to the reinsertion of the worker, the company promised to pay compensation of 11,250 euros for the moral damage suffered, as well as the wages that the worker did not receive during the period in which she was not working.
The situation of Cristina Tavares also gave rise to two administrative infractions by the ACT, for moral harassment of the worker and violation of the safety and health regulations at work, having been imposed fines for a global amount of about 37 thousand euros.
The Public Ministry also accused the cork company and five other defendants, namely, the members of the board of directors and directors of production and qualityof a crime of ill-treatment for allegedly having created a “hostile, intimidating and degrading” environment to make factory worker Cristina Tavares resign, after being forced by the courts to reinstate her.
However, the company requested that an investigation be opened and the Criminal Investigation Court of Feira issued a non-pronunciation order (decision not to prosecute the defendants).
Source: Observadora
