One of the largest apple producers in the United States has been placed under a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
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The federal agency was motivated by the immediate danger of “substantial and irreparable injury” to class members and potential witnesses in the EEOC’s sexual harassment suit against Cowiche, Wash.-based Evans Fruit Company, filed at the same time as the agency’s TRO request.
U.S. District Court Judge Lonny Suko ordered the company and all its agents to stop all retaliatory activity against those involved and those who may become involved in the lawsuit. Under the terms of the TRO, Evans Fruit supervisors — including Juan Marin, Alberto “Camello” Sanchez, and Simon Ramirez — must avoid further contact with class members and potential witnesses. They must immediately cease any attempts to intimidate or tamper with current or potential witnesses, such as paying to influence testimony. (WCxKitz)
The EEOC filed suit on behalf of three individuals and a class of women, alleging sexual harassment by the ranch manager and crew leaders at the grower’s Sunnyside ranch.
According to the agency’s investigation, these supervisors often singled out women for sexual advances, with work assignments that isolated them from friends and family members. The women were forced to quit, the EEOC charged, in order to get away from the ongoing sexual comments, propositioning and physical groping.
One of the workers who filed charges with the EEOC described how the ranch manager refused to let her work on the same crew as her 15-year-old daughter, whom he then targeted with unwelcome verbal and physical sexual attention. She said, “My daughter was just a child. That man should not have been touching her or whispering in her ear. There weren’t any other jobs in town, but we could not work there any longer. I do not want what happened to my daughter to happen to anyone else.” (WCxKitz)
EEOC Regional Attorney William Tamayo said, “Filing for a temporary restraining order is not a common action for us. But in this case, we saw an urgent need to do all in our power to protect the farm workers who participate in this case. We hope this lawsuit and the power of the court’s restraining order will encourage workers to be able to step forward with information about the discrimination with the knowledge that the law protects them and their jobs.”
“Our investigation revealed sexual harassment at Evans Fruit was so widespread and accepted that it became a condition of employment for these women,” said Luis Lucero, director of the EEOC’s Seattle Field Office. “The EEOC has filed and resolved similar lawsuits in the Pacific Northwest last year. We hope this case will alert employers in this industry to stop predatory sexual behavior and abuses of supervisory power.”
Last June, EEOC filed a lawsuit against Willamette Tree Wholesale Inc. located in Molalla, Ore., alleging that Latina workers there were sexually harassed, threatened, and in one case, repeatedly raped. In October, EEOC sued Eastern Washington winery La Pianta L.C.C., which does business as Frenchman Hills Vineyard, on behalf of a Latina worker targeted for escalating sexual attention by the vineyard manager at its facility in Othello, Wash. (WCxKitz)
In the fall of 2009, EEOC resolved two separate sexual harassment and retaliation suits: Wilcox Farms, which operates dairy and egg production facilities in Oregon and Washington, agreed to pay $260,000 to a female worker at its Aurora, Ore., facility, and Schiemer Farms of Nyassa, Ore., paid $14,500 to two farm worker women who alleged being fired immediately after reporting sexual harassment on their first day of work.
Author Rebecca Shafer, J.D., Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. Contact: RShafer@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
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