Sexual harassment happens in many industries in Florida, from bars and restaurants to fields for farming. However, much of it goes unreported year in and year out, despite the fact that people have very real cases against their employers. One of the main reasons that this happens is simple: These workers are afraid that they’re going to lose their jobs if they talk about what is happening or try to file a report.
How many cases are there? Florida International University just teamed up with a group known as We Count!, and they did a study to find out if people would report harassment to them more honestly than they did to the authorities. What they found was that a full 24 percent of those asked said they had been assaulted at some time.
This survey was targeted at the farming industry. The goal was to determine how many migrant workers were being assaulted, as this has traditionally been a group that fails to report on a consistent basis. Part of the problem is that some of the workers are not legally in the United States, so the concerns for them are even larger; not only could they lose their jobs, but they could be deported.
Leaders in this study said that assaults would happen in many places, from the fields where crops were being harvested to the packing houses where they were brought. Women tended to be the targets, the study found, with 25 percent of them reporting abuse.
Do you want to find out more about your rights after you’ve been sexually harassed, or would you like to learn how to file a report? If so, please take a look at our site to get your answers.
