Silvana Cabezas is 43 years old and is a senior technician in Safety, Hygiene and Industrial Environmental Control. In 2022 she denounced the former Undersecretary of Labor of Neuquén, Ernesto Seguel, for sexual harassment and abuse. She said that the last time he summoned her to the office was to tell her that the former governor, Omar Gutiérrez, was going to make all political staff permanent, and close the door.
-That was the slogan: I had to agree to his harassment in order to be able to get to have my place.
At that time, a labor judge ordered the cessation of all acts of violence and ordered protective measures. Seguel resigned from his position and retired. What happened to Silvana?
«They took me away from my tasks. The violence continued with the new undersecretary they put in place. I had to return to my position because I was afraid of losing my job. They pushed me aside, they skipped me everywhere in the functions I was in charge of, until December 10 (2023) they left me without a job,” he said.
She is currently unemployedafter nine years of working in public administration. “I never had the support of the State,” he remarked.
The political solution that Gutiérrez found, in the context of that scandal, was the creation by decree of a workplace violence protocol, which is currently being prosecuted. The Feminist Collective La Revuelta maintains that the procedure implemented was seriously harmful: most of those who reported lost their jobs.
According to what the lawyer explained Angélica Acosta Meza of the “Socorro Violeta” service, a space for legal advice and support in the face of sexist violence in La Revuelta, Sexual harassment of female workers is a form of submission that is exercised with the promise of achieving job stability in the State.
“I continue to insist that the protocol be changed, the protocol has to be in accordance with international labor regulations, because the complaints are really covered up,” said Silvana, who yesterday participated in the press conference given by La Revuelta in front of Casa de Government.
“We cannot leave those who dare to report out of work”
The decree that launched the intervention protocol for situations of workplace violence, harassment and/or discrimination, for those who work in the Executive Branch, centralized and decentralized organizations of Neuquén, created two organizations that were to be in charge of its application: the labor intervention office and the workplace violence prevention commission.
Acosta affirmed that the government of Rolando Figueroa removed the personnel who were in those positions. La Revuelta requested by note an interview with the governor and the Minister of Economy, Guillermo Koenig (this is the area on which the office depends), to find out how the protocol is working and what follow-up there was in each case. Until now no one answered.
The implementation was so critical that even the office director herself was accused of abuse of power.
«A third of the people who reported workplace violence were left without work and that is terrible. “If we are going to prevent violence and eradicate it, we cannot leave those who dare to report it out of work.”assured the lawyer.
He added that the intention is for the protocol to be modified, including its functional dependency, to guarantee a mechanism with reparatory responses. “We do not want people to be left without work or in worse working conditions in the province of Neuquén for reporting workplace violence,” he stressed.