US (FL): Harassment case settlement viewed as progreess
The company will now have to pay out $150,000 dollars to the claimants and take steps to ensure that such things do not occur again.
It has taken 3 and a half years for the women to get justice. The women claimed they were being subjected to sexual harassment in 2009, whilst working in the fields of Immokalee for DiMare Ruskin, one of Florida's largest tomato growers.
It is hoped that this will send a message to those involved that such things will not be tolerated. There have been other cases, but often these have gone unpunished, or even unreported.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 52female agricultural workers and found that almost all of them had experienced some form of sexual harassment. Many of them, it is suggested, never reported their suffering for fear of losing their job. It is hoped that this result will provide others with the courage to do what the Immokalee workers did and report the abuse.
Source: huffingtonpost.com; miamiherald.com
