Sexual Harassment Policies

Sexual harassment in the work place is often thought of as happening in an office type setting around the water cooler; not in a farm or agriculture setting. Sadly, sexual harassment does not limit itself to any one line of work in particular and while incidents of sexual abuse in agriculture are considered isolated, female farm workers and their employers should be aware the possibilities of harassment exists and adopt sexual harassment prevention measures. Victims of sexual harassment often fear losing their employment if they come forward. Since the majority of female farm workers are more often than not undocumented immigrants the fear of retaliation for reporting such abuse is two fold. Farmers need to provide all their workers with harassment policies written in the language they understand. Any reports of abuse should be treated with the utmost of privacy and acted upon swiftly and diligently. Farmers need to be aware of the working relationship between their managers or foremen and their workers; the cost of being unaware could be devastating indeed for them and their female employees.