Brazil's Labor Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público do Trabalho, MPT) has received 223 complaints of electoral harassment in the workplace in 2026, according to an updated tally published by G1. August, still underway, accounts for 95 reports: 42.6% of the total and more than double the 46 recorded in July. The increase coincides with the official start of the campaign on August 16, when candidates became allowed to ask for votes and advertise on the streets and online.
The figures represent complaints filed with the MPT, not proven cases. Reports came from all 26 states and the Federal District. São Paulo leads in absolute numbers, with 29 complaints, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 21, and Pernambuco, with 14. Minas Gerais and Pará have 13 each. From January to July, the tally shows 128 reports: 25.5% above the 102 received in the same period of 2024 and 16 times the eight recorded in 2022.
For Prosecutor-General of Labor Gláucio Araújo de Oliveira, closer coordination between agencies and easier reporting channels explain part of the growth. He expects, however, new complaints as this year's race hardens.
"Presidential elections are more polarized than municipal ones, so the trend is that our action this year will be more intense than in the last elections," Gláucio told G1.
Promises, threats and recent convictions
Promises of pay raises in exchange for votes and threats of dismissal are among the forms of pressure cited by the prosecutor-general. In the public service, political choice can also draw threats of removal from office or loss of bonuses. In Eldorado, São Paulo state, mayor Noel Castelo da Costa (Solidariedade) was ordered to pay R$ 30,000 in collective moral damages after intimidating a civil servant associated with the opposition, according to the MPT. The first-instance ruling allowed an appeal.
There are heavier precedents. In January 2024, retailer Havan and its owner, Luciano Hang, were convicted in first instance to pay R$ 85 million for electoral harassment during the 2018 presidential campaign. According to the MPT, the businessman questioned employees about their voting intentions and suggested he could lay off 15,000 people depending on the result. Hang denied wrongdoing, and the case was closed through a settlement in February 2025. In July 2024, the regional labor court TRT-15 upheld the conviction of Química Amparo, owner of the Ypê brand, over an online talk during the 2022 campaign that the court considered an attempt to persuade employees to vote for the reelection of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The company denied any coercion and said at the time it would appeal.
The harassment does not need to come from the company owner, explains Rodrigo Trindade, an assistant judge at the presidency of the Superior Council of Labor Justice (CSJT). Conduct by managers and other hierarchical superiors also qualifies. "A single act can indeed constitute electoral harassment. Electoral harassment does not require a series or continuity of practices to be established," he told G1.
The pressure is not limited to the physical workplace either. Federal prosecutor Nathália Mariel Ferreira de Souza Pereira points to messaging groups that employees must join to receive work instructions. "Everyone has their freedoms of thought, politics and expression, but the workspace, the space where this worker is naturally vulnerable, must be respected," she said. Informal workers, such as delivery riders pressured to display candidate stickers, can also be victims, she added. "The fact that the work is informal does not mean harassment cannot happen in that context as well," she said.
With the campaign open and TV and radio election advertising starting this Saturday (29), the prosecutor-general expects the office's action to intensify through the vote in October. The MPT will keep receiving complaints throughout the race, and the August tally may still grow, since the month is not over.