A former employee of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Eastern Fisheries has filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleging she was harassed in the workplace.
The complaint, originally filed in 2022 and amended on 9 May, 2023, alleges former Eastern Fisheries employee Paula Fortes was subject to verbal and sexual harassment while employed as a fish cleaner and janitor at the seafood company, which specializes in scallops.
According to the complaint, Fortes allegedly lodged complaints with both Eastern Fisheries and staffing agency BJ’s Service Co. but did not receive meaningful assistance.
“I have worked with these companies for years and raised concerns about the treatment I was receiving due to my identity. Yet little was done to address the widespread harassment,” Fortes told the Associated Press. “This experience was scarring and continues to impact my life to this day.”
Fortes alleges a number of Eastern Fisheries employees singled her out over her five-year period of employment as the target of sexual innuendos and disparaging personal remarks, including racist comments, as well as inappropriate touching. When she was reassigned to custodial duties, some co-workers repeatedly created messes in bathrooms she was forced to clean up, and drew offensive depictions of her on the wall, Fortes alleged.
Between 2016 and September 2021, Fortes alleges her coworkers “regularly uttered sexual innuendos about my body and hair, and about my race," including comments about her hair and the color of her skin.
Among the numerous former co-workers Fortes alleges to have engaged in harassment was Ruth Castro, who filed a complaint against Eastern Fisheries with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board claiming unfair termination of her employment and who led a protest against the company in April 2023.
“From approximately mid-2018 up until I resigned from my position, Ms. Castro repeatedly made disparaging comments about my perceived sexual orientation and gender, including ‘te gustan las mujeres’ (‘you like women’) and ‘eres medio macho’ (an insult that translates roughly to ‘you are manly’),” Fortes alleged. "I believe these statements were about my perceived sexual orientation in response to the fact that I have short hair and an athletic build.”
New Bedford's Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores and Lawyers for Civil Rights, which have each provided assistance to Castro, could not be reached for comment. Lawyers for Civil Rights also assisted Fortes in filing her complaint. Justice at Work, which has profiled Castro as a trailblazing defender of human rights, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SeafoodSource.
Fortes claims her supervisor at Eastern Fisheries and the onsite coordinator for B.J.’s did not take significant action to protect her from harassment or to punish the transgressive actions of her co-workers, though she said one employee who had harassed her was terminated.
Fortes said as a result of the work-related stress, she sought out counseling and began a prescription of anti-depression medications. But with the harassment continuing and feeling increasingly isolated at work, Fortes said she had no choice but to leave her job at Eastern Fisheries.
“Due to the incessant harassment based on my gender, perceived sexual orientation, race, color, and national origin, and the detrimental effect it had on my mental health, I was forced to resign from my employment on 19 September, 2021,” she said.
Eastern Fisheries cut ties with B.J.’s Service Company in March 2023 in a move to bring its 110 contracted laborers in-house, but its use of the e-Verify system resulted in the worker protest.
An Eastern Fisheries spokesperson said the company could not comment on the situation due to ongoing litigation beyond a prepared statement.
“Eastern Fisheries denies all allegations of discrimination or unlawful conduct, and has been cooperating fully with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in its investigation since the charge was filed one year ago in May 2022," the spokesperson said.
B.J.’s could not be reached for comment.
Photo courtesy of Eastern Fisheries
