Select Staffing must pay $500,000 in sexual harassment lawsuit before EEOC | US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Staffing agency settles class action lawsuit for allowing sexual harassment and retaliation against female farm workers

FRESNO, Calif. – Real Time Staffing Services, LLC, doing business as Select Staffing, will pay $500,000 and seek a preliminary injunction to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. The EEOC filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of female farmworkers, including numerous temporary workers directly employed by Select Staffing.

The EEOC’s related lawsuit against National Raisin was recently settled with a $2,000,000 settlement for class members and extensive injunctive relief, bringing the total amount to be paid to class members to $2.5 million.

The EEOC’s lawsuit alleged that female workers assigned by Select Staffing to a National Raisin manufacturing facility faced a sexually hostile work environment and retaliation. Despite on-site oversight by Select Staffing, widespread harassment of female workers by managers and coworkers alike was not addressed by the staffing agency, the EEOC said. The harassment included frequent unwanted groping, sexually explicit comments, requests for sexual favors and retaliatory terminations after complaints of harassment. The lawsuit also accused Select Staffing of failing to take appropriate remedial action after receiving complaints of harassment, but instead assuming that client National Raisin would respond, the EEOC said.

This alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, including sexual harassment, as well as retaliation for complaints of discrimination. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Sunshine Raisin Corporation, d/b/a National Raisin and Real Time Staffing Services, LLC, d/b/a Select Staffing, Case No. 1:21-cv-01424-JLT-HBK) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California after initially attempting to reach an out-of-court settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

The settlement order resolving the lawsuit, entered by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on July 24, 2024, in addition to the $500,000 monetary compensation, prohibits future discrimination and retaliation and includes injunctions requiring Select Staffing to change its employment practices, particularly for contract workers on the job. This includes direct monitoring by the EEOC, training for contract workers on their Title VII rights, training for management and staff representatives on how to prevent and correct harassment, and requiring Select Staffing to track complaints and communicate with customers when complaints of harassment arise to ensure appropriate remedial action is taken.

A compensation process is in place to compensate women who have been sexually harassed and/or retaliated against at National Raisin. If you would like to seek compensation, please contact the EEOC:

Phone: (213)-785-3093
Email: [email protected]

“We continue to see problems with staffing agencies ignoring harassment of temporary workers in the field,” said Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Los Angeles District Office, which covers Fresno. “Staffing agencies are the direct employers of temporary workers; like all employers, staffing agencies must take steps under Title VII to protect their employees when they learn of third-party harassment in clients’ workplaces. We commend the women who came forward despite their fears and encourage others not to remain silent. For the EEOC, no one is above the law.”

Armando Hernandez, local director of the EEOC’s Fresno office, added, “The EEOC takes allegations of harassment of temporary workers very seriously. This group is considered particularly vulnerable to workplace injustices and is rightly considered a priority in the EEOC’s 2024-2028 Strategic Enforcement Plan.”

For more information about sexual harassment discrimination, visit: https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment. For more information about retaliation, visit https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

This action was initiated by the EEOC’s Fresno Local Office, one of five branches of the agency’s Los Angeles District Office. The Los Angeles District Office has jurisdiction over portions of California and Nevada, the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Wake Island.

The EEOC prevents and corrects unlawful employment discrimination and promotes equal employment opportunity for all. For more information, visit www.eeoc.gov.