PALM BEACH POST

September 30, 2005

Florida agricultural firm faces harassment suit

By John Lantigua

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Federal attorneys filed suit Thursday against a Florida agricultural firm, accusing the company of allowing the "egregious sexual harassment" of female employees.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission submitted the complaint in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers. It accuses Gargiulo Inc. of Naples of condoning the harassment of female workers at an agricultural packing house it operates in Immokalee. The complaint names four women but says other female employees of Gargiulo may also have been victims.

According to attorney Gregory Schell of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project of Lake Worth, which represents the women, the suit is groundbreaking.

"It's the first time in Florida the EEOC has filed a court case for farmworker women" victimized by sexual harassment, he said. "This essentially is a case of unwanted advances. If you didn't go along, you either didn't get a job or you got a lesser position."

In a news release, the EEOC said the sexual harassment involved both "unwelcomed touching and verbal conduct." The retaliation for rejected advances included "unwarranted discipline" and forcing female workers to take unpaid leave.

The suit names a specific labor contractor at the packing house as being guilty of the harassment: Sony Constant, 48. A person who answered the phone at Constant's Immokalee area home Thursday said he was not available. A Gargiulo representative did not return a message.

Gargiulo Inc. is a sister company of Ag-Mart Produce of Plant City, which is under investigation by state officials for possible misuse of agricultural pesticides. The sexual harassment suit seeks both compensation for lost wages for the victims and punitive damages.