Gym ordered to pay R$15,000 to employee after boss commits racial insult in MG

A gym in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, was ordered to pay compensation of R$15,000 to an employee for racial insult. According to the Labor Court (TRT-MG), the boss said she had ‘dead man’s hair’.

The case was judged by the 8th Panel of the Regional Labor Court (TRT-MG) and forwarded to the Superior Labor Court (TST) for review. There is still no date for a new trial.

As disclosed by the Labor Court, at least three witnesses were interviewed and corroborated the conviction. One of them said that one of the owners of the establishment made negative comments about the victim’s hair. “He always said things while laughing, but only he laughed; that the author of the action changed instantly, her appearance changed; that about five people heard it”, points out the Court.

The second witness interviewed confirmed what happened and said that the employee “left with teary eyes”. The deponent also stated that the gym owner always made bad jokes with people. “He always has a joke; he has already called me a ‘shocking duck’, (…) the author of the action was very serious and reserved and had already said that she didn’t like the situation”, she declared.

The third, indicated by the owner of the establishment, pointed out that the victim was playful and called the boss ‘big mouth’. “He jokes with everyone and everyone jokes with him; he joked that his hair [dela] It came from China and was from a deceased person,” he said.

According to the witness, it was noticed that the worker didn’t like it, so she decided to tell her boss about it. Upon finding out, he would not have continued with the “jokes”.

The worker told the court that, although the boss had a habit of ‘joking’ with the gym’s employees and students, he could not confuse the joke with a racial insult.

“The moment he compared her hair to a dead man’s hair, he attacked the feeling of dignity, especially since, for a long time, and apparently still today, curly hair, dreads and braids, which also symbolize resistance, they were associated with a lack of hygiene, with something ugly, dirty and poorly maintained”, he points out.

After listening to everyone and analyzing the evidence, the reporting judge Sércio da Silva Peçanha understood that the victim was exposed to racial abuse in the workplace. “It may be that, from the defendant’s perspective, there is an understanding (and it is his) that there was no offense or intention to offend, that it was all a mere joke, however, I have no doubt that, from the complainant’s perspective and based on the evidence as a whole, the offense is clear, resulting in the conviction. He who suffers the pain of the offense knows how much it hurts”, he highlighted.

For him, the boss’s conduct cannot be seen as a mere ‘joke’. According to the TRT, the judge increased the value of the sentence from R$10,000 to R$15,000, on a pedagogical basis.

In the process, the academy was primarily responsible for the credits owed to the worker, with the two partners, including the boss, being responsible in a subsidiary manner. The case was sent to the TST for examination of the review appeal.