December 22, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Two civil lawsuits by six women have been filed with the San Mateo County Superior Court regarding sexually harassment and possible rape charges at South San Francisco’s Genentech . Genentech is not the target of the lawsuits. The lawsuit focuses on the janitorial services company Genentech employs.
As reported by The Daily Journal, six female janitors have alleged sexual harassment by their male bosses, been discriminated against, and their complaints ignored. According to the lawsuits, the acts occurred over a span of five years.
The lawsuits have named 10 men employed by Somers Building Maintenance (SBM) with discriminatory behavior that ranges from explicit and derogatory sexual statements, to forcible rape. They also include off-site incidents, but according to The Daily Journal, “the majority occurred at the Genentech campus at a building where animals are kept and janitors cleaned cages, a laundry room, men’s as well as women’s restrooms and under an office desk, according to the lawsuits. In one case, a woman was allegedly raped on the floor of the ‘mother’s room’—an area Genentech provides for nursing moms.”
Reportedly the women brought the incidents to the attention of Genentech site managers, SBM executives, their union representatives and the police. Several of the women were fired, and criminal cases against two of the men, “including the most egregious alleged rapist, were never prosecuted; according to the lawsuits, South San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office.”
At least one man has been accused by multiple women of rape, assault and sodomy. Prosecutors initially chose not to press criminal charges due to the difficulty of corroborating the acts. The lawsuits specifically target SBM, a janitorial services company Genentech initiated a contract with in 2011. SBM denies the allegations.
Arlo Garcia, an attorney with Liberation Law Group, says that Genentech is not one of the defendants, and has settled with at least some of the women before the civil case. Garcia represents four of the women and two union representatives who were allegedly fired for trying to assist the women.
“A lot of this is companies thinking they do not have to investigate claims or abuses suffered by immigrant employees,” Garcia told The Daily Journal. “They did not respect these women or the pain they were going through.”
Genentech indicates it would not comment on pending litigation involving a vendor, other than to tell The Daily Journal that the company does “value and respect everyone working on Genentech’s campus. We are committed to maintaining a positive work environment free of unlawful harassment, and we have an anti-harassment policy in place.”
In the 2013 to 2014 period, South San Francisco police referred at least three of the cases to the District Attorney’s Office. Karen Guidotti, deputy district attorney, told The Daily Journal that the police department did submit a referral for prosecutors, but they originally decided there was insufficient corroboration, and didn’t file charges. “We always take the allegations seriously, but we have ethical obligations about filing charges against people and we don’t file charges unless we have a good faith belief that there’s a reasonable likelihood of conviction.
“SBM strongly denies the allegations in the lawsuit and intends to vigorously defend itself,” Paul Emperador, SBM’s vice president of Human Resources, told The Daily Journal. “As soon as SBM was made aware of any complaints by the plaintiffs we conducted a prompt, comprehensive and effective investigation.”
Lisa Mack, an attorney representing two of the women, declined to comment on pending litigation, but did say, “This is a vulnerable community of workers and a lot of them are immigrants, they have language barriers … a lot of them are uneducated and they’re working low-wage jobs and they need to work to put food on the table and support their families. But like all other employees in any other industry, their employment rights need to be respected.”
