Exposing Gender Inequality and Harassment on the New Jersey Waterfront
Female dockworkers are facing gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment at New Jersey and New York ports.

January 07, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Sex discrimination, sexual harassment and other work-related problems create tremendous difficulties for women in every sector of the economy. A recent report in The Star-Ledger looked at the particular difficulties that women face in one traditionally male occupation: dockworker jobs at New York and New Jersey loading and shipping facilities.

The executive director of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor admitted in the story that the industry is still "male dominated." While the commission once combated racketeering and corruption on the waterfront, it now also implements policies regarding longshoreman sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination.

Women who suffer discrimination on the job usually must assert their legal rights to get employers to take notice of injustices and intolerable conditions. Unlawful retaliation against an employee's assertion of her workplace rights is illegal, and individuals who expose wrongdoing may be entitled to damages for wrongful termination or other prohibited conduct.

Female Dockworkers Share Stories of Job Discrimination

The numbers show clear disparities that cannot be explained away by women's later access to longshore jobs. In the Port of New York and New Jersey, nine out of ten longshoremen at deep sea port facilities are male, and women earn roughly two-thirds of the income of men because of disparities in hours and equipment authorizations.

Those raw numbers pale in comparison to reports from women who were denied opportunities for rejecting sexual advances, refusing to endure groping or otherwise standing up in the face of blatant gender-based harassment. One employee who has filed suit was thwarted by the refusal of both the longshoremen's union and a shipping company to take responsibility for removing an employee with a history of sexual touching of female workers. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) findings on such incidents include reports of reductions in hours for women who report sexual harassment.

New Jersey dockworkers all deserve the same basic protections under the law to work in jobs that provide a living wage, regardless of their gender. Women cannot be expected to endure hazing and other evidence of a hostile work environment after they have worked so hard to gain access to a solid job that can support a family.

Legal Responses to Hostile Work Environments, Retaliation and Other Wrongs

Notably, the classic movie "On the Waterfront" featured the rare presence of a woman in the gritty environment of the Hoboken docks: the sister of a dockworker who was murdered because he was a potential whistleblower. She fights to expose wrongdoing by getting witnesses to come forward with the truth to Waterfront Commission authorities.

On today's Jersey waterfront, the Waterfront Commission acknowledges that its police division handles reports of sexual harassment and that some registrants have had their waterfront access rights revoked. The commission has also recently threatened legal action to encourage shippers and the longshoremen's union to enhance racial diversity on the New Jersey waterfront based on complaints that minority workers are being limited to baggage handling jobs.

When employers violate employee harassment laws, victims can take legal action on their own initiative. From discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, religion, age or a disability, to enforcement of wage and hour violations or other exploitive conduct, employment law attorneys can explain an employee's rights and legal options.

Our system of civil laws provides meaningful relief for employees who are treated unfairly by their employers. For instance, workers who have been wrongfully discharged and prevail in court can get their jobs back, receive back pay, obtain compensation for emotional distress, and receive punitive damages, among other remedies.

Taking Action to Make a Difference

Employment law cases are often based on a complex combination of state and federal laws, as well as a range of evidence from in-house communications and company policy manuals to psychological evaluations and witness testimony from co-workers. For that reason, experienced advocacy from a seasoned employment lawyer can help a client explore all opportunities for negotiation and litigation of a dispute to a positive outcome.

The most compelling reason for taking action is often the goal of making the workplace more secure for all workers. Injustice yields slowly to the million tiny cuts that a bureaucracy can inflict. Individuals who stand up against intolerable work conditions, quid-pro-quo promotion offers or other wrongdoing can make a big difference in the way an unresponsive organization does business.

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