Immigrant Farm Workers given Ray of Hope in Sexual Harassment Case Settlement
It is now common knowledge that illegal undocumented immigrants are subjected to rampant first degree sexual assault while they toil away on farms. This should never happen but when you come into an environment when you do not speak the language and you do not have any skills you put yourself at serious risk.
Entering a country illegally is an incredible risk
At first, it seemed like these women had no chance of winning legal battles against their abusers especially since they were not American citizens to begin with. However, a recent ruling passed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has given hopes to thousands and thousands of other women suffering from similar fate, as reported by Kged.org.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has declared that the defendants will have to pay over $330,000 as a settlement in sexual harassment lawsuit that was filed against them by a sexual harassment attorney representing as many as ten Hispanic women, all victims of abuse.
Hard to operate in America if you do not know English
This ruling will ensure that other illegal immigrants who are being sexually assaulted in farm fields all over the nation have the courage to speak up against and about the harassment even though they aren’t technically citizens of America. Another effect that may arise out of this verdict is that sexual harassment attorneys will be encouraged to take up such cases and still be able to succeed in suing the wrong doers.
Big money
Apart from this specific case, the only other notable settlement made towards abused farm workers originated from a lawsuit that was filed in 2006 against Harris Farms, where a farmworker plaintiff alleged that she was raped at work and was awarded an amount of $1 million as compensation for economic, non-economic, and punitive damages. That is a massive amount of money.
Another area (apart from the agricultural industry) where similar rampant sexual harassment is prevalent is the janitorial line of work. Many such cases and settlements passed by the EEOC have been recorded in that field too.
If you have been sexually harassed the top item on your agenda should be to open up the website USAttorneys.com. This site has dedicated and committed sexually harassment lawyers ready to accept your case.
Federal Government makes it clear that they want to continue supervising Allentown School District for sexual harassment
The American Department of Justice has filed a petition which seeks to allow them to extend their oversight of Allentown School Districts operations so as to avoid and prevent more sexual harassment cases from arising in the future, according to Leighvalleylive.com.
However, Allentown School District Authorities do not deem it necessary for the feds to continue watching over their every move. They feel that they have progressed exceptionally as a unit and have strived for zero tolerance when it comes to sexual harassment and have been successful in implementing such measures.
Allentown school district: federal supervision is redundant
The district further challenges the petition by arguing that they have taken exclusive steps to curb sexual harassment. They have installed more video cameras to monitor activity throughout the campus and have also appointed people as sexual harassment officers. These officers are primarily meant to curb harassment.
Department of Justice does not have too much credibility
The Department of Justice, in its reasoning to continue watching over Allentown School District, claim that the district has failed not once or twice, but four times on four separate occasions to properly investigate and handle complaints of sexual harassment. They feel the district is not independently empowered enough to control the situation by themselves. This is the same Justice Department that did not punish the IRS for being corrupt pertaining to Lois Lerner, the same one that sold high powered weaponry to the Mexican Mafia leading to a federal agent’s death, and so on.
