Equitable Food Initiative has join forces with Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center ( PNASH ) , a part of the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences , to brook the development of a worksite training and toolkit , ¡ Basta ! prevent Sexual Harassment in Agriculture .
April is National Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention Month , and EFI is using the time to shine a light on this authoritative topic . Several studies have found that 75%-80 % of female farmworkers have experienced sexual torment at work , equate to 50 % in non - agricultural office context as reported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission .
The EFI site offer statistics , facts and study citation on torment at oeuvre , unite to get at the ¡ Basta ! Preventing Sexual Harassment toolkit , which boast videos in both English and Spanish , and educational materials that can be used in workplace ( posters , shareable nontextual matter and a elaborated fact sheet ) . The selective information and resources can be find at equitablefood.org/harassment , and all are provide free of charge .
“ Development of the ¡ Basta ! toolkit was catalyzed by distaff farmworkers in Eastern Washington who brought the issue of sexual torment to PNASH , ” explain Dr. Jody early on , a professor at University of Washington who worked on the labor . “ This is the first programme created by and for agricultural stakeholders to address the bar of intimate torment , and we tailored it to the need of Latino / a / x farmworkers , agriculturalist and supervisory program . ”
The PNASH team work for six years and engaged more than 48 dissimilar stakeholders in the development – admit farmworkers , cultivator association , health concern advocates , human rightfulness organisation , land and federal bureau , farmworker rights groups , individual businesses and nonprofits like Equitable Food Initiative .
Industrywide challenge“This can be a unmanageable issue , but it ’s all-important that we deal it industrywide , ” said LeAnne Ruzzamenti , director of selling communication for EFI . “ We know that harassment happens more oftentimes among farmworkers , we know that it goes unreported , and we sleep together that agriculture work include characteristic that make women more vulnerable to it . ”
EFI ’s credentials program goes beyond a simple audit and introduces workforce development solutions along with preparation in communicating , difference of opinion resolution , problem - solving and collaboration . Third - party evaluation studies have found that the platform Stephen Collins Foster culture shifts on farms that result in venerating and trusting workplaces where women and indigenous workers report reduced harassment and discrimination .
“ EFI ’s mission is to improve the lives of farmworkers by bringing everyone in the system together to address the refreshful produce industriousness ’s most pressing problems , ” Ruzzamenti continued . “ I ca n’t consider of a more important goal than make safer and healthy workplaces through a zero - tolerance approach to harassment . ”
For more data : Equitable Foodwww.equitablefood.org
