Washington AG Acts to Stop Sexual Harassment of Female Farmworkers; Record Settlement of $525,000

Far from the clamor of the national headlines, Wa AG Bob Ferguson and his staff, working closely with the Northwest Justice project, has been litigating on behalf of women agricultural workers who have long been the victim of sexual harassment. Ferguson said in a statement: “No woman in this state should be forced to accept sexual harassment as a condition of her employment.”

The State filed a complaint on April 26, 2017 against Horning Brothers, LLC alleging it violated of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, as well as the Washington Law Against Discrimination. Horning Brothers is an agricultural company that grows, harvests, sorts, packs, and transports vegetables and women who work in the onion packing shed were harassed by a supervisor who repeatedly asked for sex, made overt sexual gestures, and engaged in the groping and touching women.

The consent decree includes not just a $525,000 payment but also an injunction that requires Horning Brothers to take steps to end discrimination in its hiring and employment practices, create a complaint procedure for employees, and provide semi-annual reports of complaints to the AG’s office. Horning Brothers would be required to make its new policies available to its employees in English and Spanish.

In a statement, one of the victims had a message for other workers: “I’m here to tell anybody that’s going through that that they have a voice.” She also had a message for those in positions of authority: “This is a big message to all the foremen, all the people in charge, who think that they have power over women, that they don’t.”

More press coverage can be found here and here. Video of the press conference can be found here.