Immigrant Workers File Sex Harassment Class Action Against Multinational Maintenance Company

16 May 2006

Eight Latina women today filed a class action civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota in Minneapolis on behalf of women who have experienced sex harassment -- including coerced sex and additional assaults in the workplace -- as well as other discrimination and retaliation at work. The federal lawsuit alleges that the women's employer, ABM Industries Incorporated (ABM), has failed to address these civil rights violations for years, fostering a work environment where male supervisors have been free to sexually harass their female subordinates.

ABM has its headquarters in San Francisco, Calif. and provides janitorial services at dozens of Minnesota locations, such as the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and downtown office towers. ABM is one of the largest facility services contractors listed on the New York Stock Exchange, employing nearly 75,000 people across North America.

The class action lawsuit (Sandoval, et al. v. American Building Maintenance Industries, Inc., a/k/a ABM Industries Incorporated, d/b/a ABM Janitorial Services) also alleges that female janitors have been subjected to repeated sexual insults, physical intimidation, and other abuses by male supervisors. According to the federal Complaint, ABM has ignored the pattern of civil rights violations in its workplace despite numerous reports by female janitors and others.

"The evidence we have seen to date is startling," said Justin Cummins of Miller-O'Brien and attorney for the plaintiffs in the case being brought today. "It's as if these long-term employees are invisible to the company."

The civil rights lawsuit asks the Court, among other things, to certify the case as a class action, to compel ABM's adoption and enforcement of employment policies that end the pattern of civil rights violations, and to monitor ABM's compliance with the law going forward.

ABOUT MILLER-O'BRIEN, P.L.L.P.

Miller-O'Brien ( http://www.miller-obrien.com ), a Minneapolis-based law firm, handles civil rights as well as labor and employment cases in Minnesota and across the country. Some of the firm's landmark results include the largest pre-suit settlement in the U.S. of a gender class action (Kosen, et al. v. American Express Financial Advisors, et al, D.D.C. 2002) and the largest judgment in Minnesota in a housing discrimination case (SternJohn v. Kreisler, et al, D.Minn. 2004).

Source: prnewswire

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