Boss ‘leered’ and ‘licked his lips’ at berry farm workers in California, lawsuit says
Farm workers on a ranch in Southern California said they were told to ignore a supervisor who propositioned them for sex while threatening to fire them or withhold time off if they refused.
Now the federal government is stepping in.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency tasked with safeguarding and enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace, filed a civil lawsuit against Tres Hijas Berry Farm LLC in federal court on March 24, saying the company subjected both its male and female workers to sex-based harassment and retaliation.
The EEOC accused Tres Hijas Berry Farm of subjecting employees to “severe or pervasive sexual harassment” and creating a hostile work environment.
A male supervisor repeatedly targeted the workers and “looked the employees up and down, leered at them in a sexually suggestive manner, rubbed his hands together, commented on their physical appearances, and licked his lips in a sexually suggestive manner,” the lawsuit states.
Tres Hijas Berry Farm grows and harvests raspberries in Camarillo, California, about 50 miles west of Los Angeles.
The business is registered to Michael R. Brucker, who did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on March 28. Information regarding the farm’s legal counsel was also not available.
“It is imperative that employers address complaints of harassment in a fair and timely manner. Chilling employees from reporting harassment creates a culture that allows harassment to flourish and negatively impacts all employees,” Christine Park-Gonzalez, acting LA district director for the EEOC, said in a news release.
According to the complaint filed in the Central District of California, Tres Hijas Berry Farm’s alleged illegal employment practices date to at least October 2018.
Since that time, the EEOC said, a male supervisor has targeted male and female employees with “frequent inappropriate sexual comments” by repeatedly asking them out on dates, to be in a relationship with him or to have sex with him.
The EEOC said the sexual comments were often accompanied by unwanted touching, groping and “rubbing against them” — so much so that employees reportedly feared being alone with him.
On at least one occasion, the supervisor declined to approve an employee’s request for time off because she wouldn’t “give [him] anything in return,” the agency said. He also reportedly threatened to fire another female employee if she didn’t have sex with him.
According to the lawsuit, many of the sexual comments were made “within earshot or plain sight of” other managers.
But when employees tried to report the supervisor to higher-ups, the EEOC said, they were told to ignore him and discouraged from complaining. Some workers were retaliated against for reporting, including one instance in which a female employee was relocated to a different work assignment that isolated her from her coworkers, the government said.
“This supervisor further harassed and intimidated (the employee) by getting in close proximity to her, leering at her, and telling her that no one would believe her if she complained again; he bragged that nothing would happen to him because she and others were only workers,” the complaint states.
The employee eventually resigned in 2019 and filed a charge of discrimination against Tres Hijas Berry Farm with the EEOC shortly thereafter.
In February 2021, the agency determined there was reasonable cause to believe the farm had violated federal employment laws and tried to resolve the allegations outside of court. But those efforts failed, prompting the EEOC to sue.
Now Tres Hijas Berry Farm is accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bars workplace discrimination based on sex.
The EEOC is seeking a permanent injunction banning the farm from further discrimination as well as past and future losses for employees who experienced “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life.”
Tres Hijas Berry Farm has not yet responded to the complaint, court documents show.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Boss ‘leered’ and ‘licked his lips’ at berry farm workers in California, lawsuit says."
