Shutterstock / Roman Motizov
The petition alleges that once incident was caught on camera, but the perpetrator was only given a 5 day work suspension.
In a suit filed in Bexar County district court, the plaintiffs maintain that they were victims of gender discrimination, bullying and physical abuse, which created a “sexually charged” and “toxic” work environment. The suit was filed Friday by the law offices of FeganScott.
Personnel with the city attorney's office were unavailable for immediate comment.
One of the women alleges in the suit that she was physically assaulted by her male supervisor, an reportedly caught on surveillance footage. Despite that footage, the male higher-up only received a five-day suspension and was allowed to return to work, according to the petition.
Following the man’s return from suspension, the lawsuit maintains that he started a campaign to harass the women even more by taunting them with verbal comments, sexual sounds and text messages containing “highly inappropriate sexual content.”
“These women did everything right by reporting the abuse in their chain of command, trusting that the city would follow its policies and protect them,” said Mark Anthony Sanchez, an attorney with Sanchez & Wilson and co-counsel in this case, in a statement. “The cold reality is that the city failed them at every step of the way. Not only did the city ignore their cries for help, but it also tactically gave their abusers a green light to make their lives miserable by stepping forward.”
Lynn Ellenberger, an attorney with FeganScott, said the firm chose to file its complaint as a class action lawsuit because there are likely other women and former employees of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center who have been the victims of similar behavior.
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