Podcast: Who Is Responsible for Rape on the Night Shift?

Estimates from the Justice Department show that about 50 workers a day are sexually assaulted or raped on the job. So when such attacks occur, who’s responsible? Beyond the attacker, is it the employer? What about the government agencies in charge of workplace safety?

These are just some of the questions at the center of the recent FRONTLINE documentary, Rape on the Night Shift, a joint investigation with Univision, the Center for Investigate Reporting, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, and KQED.

The investigation found that sexual violence is a problem at janitorial companies across the nation, from tiny mom-and-pop-shops, to big corporations that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. And often, such attacks are being committed against some of the most invisible and vulnerable members of the workforce: undocumented immigrant women.

In the below podcast from Reveal from the Center for Investigate Reporting, KQED Central Valley bureau chief, Sasha Khokha, explores how allegations of assault have been handled by the largest janitorial employer in the United States, a multi-billion dollar company named ABM.

The episode also includes an interview with Reveal investigative reporter Bernice Yeung about ways to keep workers safe; a conversation with Daffodil Altan of Reveal about how the story was reported; and a series of stories about workplace safety inside the manufacturing plants that make some of the technology products we all use every day. Listen below:

WATCH: Rape on the Night Shift 

FRONTLINE investigates the sexual abuse of immigrant women in the janitorial industry.