Saturday, February 27, 2016

FLORIDA - Women raped and sexually harassed at Florida farm awarded US$17.5m

Five former employees unlikely to receive money because vegetable packing plant closed and the three men, two of them owner’s sons, were never arrested. A federal jury awarded almost US$17.5m to five former female employees of a South Florida farm who said they were either raped or sexually harassed at a vegetable packing plant, their lawyer and the US equal employment opportunity commission said on Thursday.
Three men, including two sons of the owner of Moreno Farms, near Fort Myers in southwest Florida, were accused of sexual harassment against the women in 2011 and 2012 in coolers and an office trailer at the packing house. They were also accused of rape, groping, kissing and threats they would be fired if they refused to have sex with supervisors, according to the legal complaint brought against Moreno Farms.
However, the women are unlikely to receive a penny because the packing house closed after the case was brought and the men were never arrested, a lawyer for the women, Victoria Mesa-Estrada, said.

INC News, 27/02/2016 - source: ©TheGuardian

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