The Ministry of Health of Río Negro will replace the director of the Pilcaniyeu hospital, Ariel Kuxhaus, who was held responsible for acts of gender violence in the workplace, after the complaint of three health center workers.
Sources from the provincial body confirmed that seeks replacement for the designation in front of the hospital in the town of the Southern Line, but until yesterday there were no definitions.
Kuxhaus was reported for workplace harassment and gender violence towards three professionals of the hospital that leads and came to trial before the First Chamber of Labor of Bariloche last October, who decided to give rise to the lawsuit with a ruling that includes behavioral guidelines, changes from the central Health organization and the authorization for the complainants to demand reparation measures. As there were no appeals, it was known the day before yesterday that The sentence was final and this situation was celebrated by the Asspur unionwho accompanied the workers’ process.
The case was heard in the labor court and the sentence did not consist of a specific sentence for the director but rather an order for the accused “adjust your behavior to the norms of respect due to any person”.
The court also required the ministry authorities to ten days “adopt the effective measures necessary to end the situation of abuse” in the rural hospital, in addition to ordering that an action protocol be prepared within 30 days for this type of case.
The costs of the trial were imposed on Kuxhaus “because his misconduct was the reason why the plaintiffs required judicial intervention,” determined the Bariloche court made up of judges Juan Lagomarsino, Jorge Serra and Emilio Riat in the ruling signed in mid-May.
The episodes of workplace harassment against female workers occurred in 2022 and the complaint by the victims was filed in February 2023, with the support of the Asspur union. The case came to trial in October of last year and the sentence was announced in recent May. Prior to that, precautionary measures with restriction of approach were reiterated and the ministry initiated an administrative summary, as reported in the judicial file.
“Once a colleague was encouraged to report, followed by two who also worked at the same hospital. They referred to situations of abuse with gender violence, always in the institutional setting. There was also a clear abuse of power since he held at that time, and unfortunately still holds, the position of director of the Pilcaniyeu hospital,” said Patricia Baeza, secretary of Gender and Human Rights of Asspur.
Despite the modest court order for the accused to modify his behavior, for Asspur he feels a “very significant precedent because there are no records in the field of public healththat an official is sentenced, has gone through a judicial process like this and the result has been this way,” said Baeza.
