A Nicaraguan immigrant filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the California Department of Civil Rights for allegedly being subjected to employment discrimination and sexual harassment.
Araceli Navarrete Gutiérrez, 44, originally from Tipitapa, Nicaragua, and her former colleagues at the El Pollo Loco fast food restaurant, located at 2501 East Slauson Avenue in the city of Huntington Park, protested in front of the business after the woman was fired after reporting the abuse.
“It all started three months ago; There were two incidents: first they harassed me for not mastering English well, they laughed at my accent, a cashier imitated me and so did my boss,” Araceli Navarrete told La Opinión.
A single mother with two children, the woman living in the city of South Gate reported that a month and a half ago she was the victim of an incident of sexual harassment by a manager named Oscar, who made lewd comments to her.
“[El gerente] He asked me, in a sexual voice, when I was going to call him. She did it through our El Pollo Loco headphones, so my coworkers could hear it too. This made me feel uncomfortable and I asked him to stop,” Gutiérrez alleges in the EEOC complaint. A copy was delivered to La Opinión.
“I think that [el gerente] “He had also harassed other El Pollo Loco employees, and that El Pollo Loco management already knew about his behavior before he harassed me.”
“He told me that I made him nervous,” said Araceli, who had been on the job for just over two years. “And I told him, Oscar, don’t say that and the truth is that it made me feel very uncomfortable; He also told me when he was going to give her the wedding ring or what kind of men I liked, young, old, white, black.”
He added that, on one occasion, both were going to deliver food to customers when they collided head-on.
“I felt that he touched my breasts and I felt sorry and ashamed: he didn’t apologize and just kept moving forward,” Araceli said.
With the red flags lit, the woman decided to report what was happening to Human Resources.
“They told me there would be an investigation.”
The result of said “investigation” was his dismissal.
“They fired me from work for having filed the complaint,” he said. “That was the worst day of my life; I thought, How am I going to pay the rent? How am I going to feed my children?
After her complaint to the Human Resources office about the touching and explicit questions, Araceli returned to work normally on a Monday. Two days later, after a video call, she was fired from work, in mid-October.
During the lunchtime demonstration on Thursday, workers at the former El Pollo Loco store protested the termination of Araceli’s contract and demanded that the company take steps to protect workers from sexual harassment.
Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228, landmark legislation that, in addition to raising the minimum wage in fast food to $20 an hour next year, establishes a statewide Fast Food Council to set standards in around health, safety and training.
Also, AB 1228 institutes new protections for workers against retaliation and gives them a seat at the table to address the challenges they face every day at work, including harassment of any nature.
The alleged harasser of Araceli Navarrete Gutiérrez was not sanctioned.
United is strong
Lawyer Eve Cervantez, from San Francisco, told La Opinión that she often defends the workers who are part of the Fight for $15, who have a communication network, work together and try to help each other when crimes are committed. injustices against them in the workplace.
“Unfortunately it didn’t surprise me at all. [el caso de Araceli]”, declared the lawyer. “I represent many fast food workers who have been sexually harassed at work. And then when they complain about it, revenge comes and something even worse happens.”
Cervantez said he was unaware of the frequency with which incidents like the one involving the Nicaraguan woman occur, but he noted that sexual harassment in the fast food industry “is a really big and very frequent problem.”
“More than 70% of women who work in restaurants have complained of sexual harassment. “It’s restaurant workers, and fast food workers in particular, one of the largest groups complaining and filing charges with the government about sexual harassment,” she said.
She stated that, currently, immigrant women like Araceli and migrants in general are losing their fear and denouncing abuses and violations of their labor rights.
“I think it’s true that more people are willing to talk about their rights; It is very important that immigrants know that everyone who works is protected by the laws in the United States of America. Here,” she declared. “Immigrants are also protected against sexual harassment and retaliation. “It is illegal to sexually harass someone and it is illegal to fire someone because they complain.”
He also considered that it has helped a lot that workers unite, need to talk to each other and protest, even though there is still a real power imbalance.
“Sexual harassment is about a kind of power structure in which the people who run fast food restaurants have much more power, so it is very important for workers to come together, communicate with each other and help each other.” to others,” Cervantez said. “I think that’s really been one of the main things that’s helping this movement move forward.”
Pollo Loco reacts
The El Pollo Loco corporation responded to this case with a statement:
“On October 16, 2023, an employee informed El Pollo Loco in writing that another team member had made an inappropriate comment and we immediately launched an investigation. Separately, we received notification from SSA that it could not confirm that the employee is authorized to work in the US based on the documentation submitted by the employee. We informed the employee of the discrepancy the next day and explained that while we could not continue hiring her until she resolved the discrepancy with the government, she could resubmit her application. At the same time, we requested to speak with her about her complaint, but she decided not to participate in our investigation.”
“The company strictly prohibits harassment and discrimination based on any protected characteristic and enforces a clear anti-retaliation policy to ensure that no individual faces consequences for reporting such issues.”
“Training on these policies is mandatory for all employees to ensure compliance. Reports of harassment are taken seriously and can be reported through various channels, including an anonymous hotline. All reports of harassment are thoroughly investigated by Human Resources, and employees who violate these policies are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
“El Pollo Loco remains steadfast in our commitment to a harassment-free workplace, continually upholding our core values and the integrity of our operations with zero tolerance for any behavior that undermines a respectful and safe workplace.”
Complaints in California
“We see complaints from people who come to our offices in person, although we believe that the numbers [reportados] “They are higher than reported,” said Victor Chen, spokesman for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
In California, in 2021, 253 women and 37 men filed complaints of sexual harassment at work and in 2022 there were fewer women: 244, but more men: 61 Marcelo Diéguez, lawyer at the Diefer Law Group firm, highlighted that Latinos, men and Women are more likely to be victims of sexual harassment at work and not report it.
“For more than 20 years I have realized that people are afraid to report it, and even more so when there is a reason for not having papers,” he stressed. “They are afraid of having no one to protect them or of being fired from jobs or threatened with deportation.”
The lawyer indicated that complaints about threats to call the immigration authorities “unfortunately are many.”
“Sometimes it is not even the employers who threaten, but the managers or administrators,” he declared. “To defend yourself, wisdom is power, because under California laws everyone is protected regardless of their immigration status.”
Law firm Diefer Law Group emphasizes that, because between 58% and 72% of sexual harassment goes unreported, it is difficult to have an exact understanding of how much sexual harassment occurs in the workplace. Overall, between 54% and 81% of women report experiencing sexual harassment at work, and up to 86% in California report experiencing it. Additionally, half of these women describe that sexual harassment has had a negative impact on their careers.
The national “turning point”
In the report called “The Tipping Point” by professors Catharine A. MacKinnon and Louise F. Fitzgerald of the UC Berkeley Food Research Center, they analyzed how the subminimum wage keeps incomes low and harassment high.
The report reaffirms that high levels of sexual harassment have been discovered in the restaurant industry, one of the largest employers in the private sector.
The report documents findings from the first nationally representative sample to establish the prevalence of sexual harassment among tipped workers, its connection to the subminimum wage of tipped workers, and the consequences survivors face, including retaliation by employers for reporting abuses.
The authors summarize that this harassment has become more severe and potentially deadly for tipped workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They add that the research “is particularly timely to inform discussions about legislation” now being considered in Congress to phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers.
Key findings of the report include:
Overall, 71% of female restaurant workers had been sexually harassed at least once during their time in the restaurant industry. This percentage is the highest of any industry that reports sexual harassment statistics. In fact, it dwarfs any other.
While female restaurant workers are most frequently harassed by customers, they are also widely sexualized and sexually harassed by supervisors, managers, or restaurant owners. Combining tipped and non-tipped workers, 44% reported having been victims of sexual harassment by someone in a management or ownership position.
Tipped workers paid less than minimum wage (this occurs in 4 out of 5 states) experience sexual harassment at a much higher rate than their non-tipped counterparts. Tipped workers were significantly more likely to have been sexually harassed than their non-tipped counterparts: more than three-quarters vs. more than half (76% vs. 52%). This finding corroborates previous studies that showed that workers in states with a subminimum wage of $2.13 report twice the rate of sexual harassment compared to workers in states without a subminimum wage. at a minimum for tipped workers.
Tipped workers were sexually harassed much more frequently, in every way measured, than their non-tipped counterparts. Tipped workers were more likely to be treated in a sexist manner; more likely to be subjected to sexually aggressive and degrading behavior; They received more persistent and intrusive sexual attention, were more likely to be coerced or threatened into engaging in sexual activities they did not want, and were more likely to be victims of sexual assault than their non-tipped counterparts. These differences between the experiences of tipped and non-tipped workers were not only statistically significant but substantial.
These experiences did not represent isolated harassment, but often persisted for days, weeks, and in some cases, months. 37% of workers interviewed described situations in which harassment continued for a month or more, and that the behaviors during this period occurred frequently or almost every shift (35%).
When workers reported sexual harassment, tipped workers were less likely to say the situation was corrected than their non-tipped counterparts (61% to 73%). Tipped workers were substantially more likely than their non-tipped counterparts to say they had been encouraged to “just forget about it” (39% to 23%).
Virtually all (98%) harassed workers reported experiencing at least one incident of retaliation in which all forms of retaliation were taken into account. Tipped workers suffered significantly and substantially more retaliation than non-tipped workers. Almost no differences were reported between tipped and non-tipped workers in the particular form of retaliation, with the exception that tipped workers were more likely to say they had been threatened by their employers for reporting sexual harassment; None of the non-tipped workers reported this experience.