WUNRN
Human Rights Watch
FIELDS OF PERIL - CHILD LABOUR IN US
AGRICULTURE - GIRLS
Direct Link to Full 102-Page 2010
Report:
CONSIDER FOR GIRLS IN CHILD LABOR IN
US AGRICULTURE
Continue reading for Excerpts from
Sexual Harassment & Violence.
Human Rights Watch (2010). Fields
of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture. “Hundreds of thousands of children
under age 18 are working in agriculture in the United States. But under a
double standard in US federal law, children can toil in the fields at far
younger ages, for far longer hours, and under far more hazardous conditions
than all other working children. For too many of these children, farmwork means
an early end to childhood, long hours at exploitative wages, and risk to their
health and sometimes their lives. Although their families’ financial need helps
push children into the fields—poverty among farmworkers is more than double
that of all wage and salary employees—the long hours and demands of farmwork
result in high drop-out rates from school. Without a diploma, child workers are
left with few options besides a lifetime of farmwork and the poverty that
accompanies it.”
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EEOC - The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that
make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because
of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national
origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/
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SEXUAL HARASSMENT & VIOLENCE
"From California, where the
fields were called 'field de calzon' (or field of panties) because so many
supervisors raped women and girls there, to Florida, where female farm workers
call them 'The Green Motel,' and throughout the country, we have found women
and girls working in agriculture are often particularly vulnerable to sexual
harassment." EEOC Regional Attorney, San Francisco District Office,
2009
Farmworker women and girls are
exceptionally vulnerable to sexual exploitation and violence by co-workers,
crew leaders, labor contractors, and growers. This violence ranges from
inappropriate or threatening comments to groping, sexual assault, and rape. In
a recent survey of Latino immigrants in 5 states, 77% of women said that sexual
harassment was a major workplace problem.
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