FA R M L A B O R I N F O R M AT I O N B U L L E T I N
Voice of the Fields California
February 2020
FREE
Volume 30, Number 2
ISSUES THAT AFFECT WOMEN FARM WORKers
The Battle Against Workplace Harassment
W
omen suffer the tragedies of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace at alarming rates across the country.
According to a 2016 report by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), nearly 85% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work and only 25% actually report the crime. Female farmworkers were surveyed about these statistics and they estimated that women in agriculture experience far higher sexual harassment and assault rates, with even lower reporting statistics. In a male-dominated and under-regulated industry, female farmworkers make up only 32% of all farmworkers in the United States, with only 265,000 in the state of California. Farm working women are particularly vulnerable to workplace harassment - and often unable to report their experiences - because of several factors: immigration status, language barriers, social isolation, and gender statistics. The threat of deportation is especially prominent for immigrant farmworkers. The National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) estimates that almost half of the country’s farmworkers are without immigration documentation and 22% are legal residents or hold a work visa. That means that 71% of farmworkers are under threat of deportation, mainly due to the current administration’s immigration policy and public charge rule. (This issue provides an update on the recent public charge ruling on page 6) As a result, individuals are unlikely to report workplace harassment and assault in order to avoid interactions with
law enforcement. Perpetrators of harassment and sexual violence use this information to their advantage and blackmail individuals who already fear an unfavorable encounter with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). Language barriers serve as another obstacle to reporting sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Although Spanish is the native language for nearly three quarters of farmworkers across the country, there are also a significant amount of people who speak indigenous languages such as Mixteco, Zapoteco or Triqui. Hotlines and counseling are routinely available in Spanish throughout California but there are very few services available in indigenous languages. Under such circumstances, reporting becomes difficult, if not impossible, for individuals who do not speak Spanish or English. Farmworkers may also live in somewhat isolated communities which can affect their willingness to report workplace harassment for fear of word getting out. People living in small communities are often aware of fellow community members’ lives in a way that larger communities are not. When victims report crimes to an organization of individuals that live in their community, there is concern about word getting out. Migrant workers experience another obstacle of the social isolation issue simply because of their migratory status and an inherent inability to stay in one location for long enough to complete the reporting process
in the county that it occurred in. The final obstacle for farmworkers that have experienced sexual harassment and assault at work is gender. The overwhelming majority of victims are women while the overwhelming majority of their supervisors are men. Female farmworkers are further disadvantaged - by comparison to their male counterparts - because of lower working wages and more dangerous work tasks. Considering that the agriculture industry is the least regulated with regard to labor rights, employers are allowed to fire employees without documentation for cause and do not have the state and federal oversight restrictions offered by alternate lines of employment. Recently, however, California enacted SB 1343 demanding that job sites provide sexual harassment training to all employees. Despite overwhelming statistics about women’s encounters with inappropriateness and violence in the workplace, there are many resources to turn to for counseling, prevention resources, crime reporting assistance, and many other valuable services. Anyone who has experienced harassment or assault is encouraged to seek help, regardless of their age or gender. Please see the next section for more information about the services available in your community. Source: “The rape crisis among California’s farm workers,” Scott Soriano. Capitol Weekly. January 9, 2020. capitolweekly.net/the-rape-crisis-among-californiasfarm-workers/