Thursday, March 15, 2007

New Legal Developments on Racial Justice in Brazil, Part II

Shell Oil and Racial Discrimination

The institute of Racial and Environmental Advocacy (IARA) and the SINDIPETRO (Union formed by workers of the oil, chemical, and plastic industries) from Alagoas, Seara, entered with a representation against Petrobras and Shell Brasil due to the lack of blacks and Afro descendents employed in these respective companies. The president of IARA, Humberto Adami Santos Junior, was received on the 23rd, by Procurador Chefe (equivalent to Chief District Attorney) of Regional Office of First Region (Rio de Janeiro), Marcio Vieira Alves, and by the Labor D.A.s (procuradoras do trabalho), Juliane Mombelli, Maria Julieta Tepedino de Braganca e Lisyane Chaves Motta. This representation will be distributed to other regional Labor Public Ministry Offices and was distributed to the Federal Public Ministry on the 22nd .


According to the representation, discrimination against blacks and Afro-descendents was observed through the annual social statement of these companies. In the case of Petrobras, out of 53.933 employees, 2.339 are Afro-Brazilians, and out of these 3.10% are in decision-making positions. In the case of Shell, out of 1.657 employees, 34 are blacks and none of them hold decision-making positions. The numbers refer to the year of 2005. Besides the representation, the attorney petitions for the inception of a public civil inquisition [which can give bases to a Public Civil Action] in order to investigate the situation. The petition is also signed by attorney Anderson Bussinger Carvalho, who says:
“In this country, it is fundamental that major companies, which profit from exploration of our natural resources, become role models for all the other institutions. Through the analysis of the social statements published by Petrobras and Shell Brasil, it is possible to conclude that, although the first [Petrobras] has supported projects in favor of promoting racial equality, both of them have the same anomaly happening internally, which is a contradiction to the in-favor-of-racial equality- programs and discourse that have been massively published.

The first hearing of the public civil inquisition is scheduled to happen this month, March 2007, through the Public Ministry of Labor.

No comments: