SAN ANTONIO – Attorneys representing two female maintenance employees, who have since resigned from the Henry B. González Convention Center, have asked a judge to designate their pending lawsuit as a class action, court records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
The motion, filed Friday in Bexar County state district court, seeks to certify the potential class to all non-supervisory women who worked at the City of San Antonio-run facility between April 2021 and the time of trial.
“The putative Class of approximately 100 women is so numerous so that joinder of all members in one lawsuit is impracticable,” the motion states.
A class action designation would allow the plaintiffs to sue the city on behalf of a larger group of people who have similar claims of mistreatment.
The suit, which seeks more than $1 million in damages, was filed after a series of stories from KSAT Investigates revealed that at least five maintenance supervisors at the convention center were accused of improperly treating female coworkers in recent years.
The original suit claims that under the watch of Convention and Sports Facilities Director Patricia Muzquiz Cantor, the convention center “has become a den where male supervisors prey on their female subordinates.”
Friday’s motion states that attorneys for the former employees now contend that at least 13 men employed at the convention center since 2021 “sexually harassed, assaulted, battered, and/or sexually abused their female colleagues.”
Nine of those 13 male employees were supervisors, according to the motion.
Workplace compliance investigator hired by plaintiffs’ attorneys issues scathing report
The 365-page motion includes deposition records and a report compiled by a workplace compliance investigator.
The report, completed last week on behalf of the plaintiffs by outside attorney Lorene Schaefer, listed numerous inconsistencies, she states, found with the City of San Antonio (COSA)‘s anti-harassment policies, training, investigations and management response.
Among Schaefer’s reported findings:
Anti-harassment policy and procedures failed to explain COSA’s complaint process and contained a typographical error regarding employee reporting requirements
COSA failed to disseminate and enforce its anti-harassment policy and complaint procedure and take other reasonable steps to prevent and correct harassment, including regular and meaningful training
There were repeated instances where COSA knew or should have known of potentially harassing conduct and failed to take reasonable corrective action to prevent the repetition of such conduct
COSA repeatedly failed to document and retain reports of harassment or investigation documents when investigations occurred
When investigations did occur, COSA failed to require its investigators to make credibility determinations, to ensure investigations were thorough and to require the investigator to be knowledgeable or experienced
After one of the plaintiffs, a former maintenance worker at the convention center, told her female supervisor that one of her male supervisors had fondled and groped her in a locked office, the female supervisor failed to notify human resources as required, according to the report.
“Instead, (female supervisor) placed (plaintiff) in harm’s way by asking (plaintiff) to let her know when (male supervisor) called her again so (female supervisor) could see if (male supervisor) would lock the door again. Indeed, (male supervisor) did lock the door again, but this time (female supervisor) was there and knocked on the door to let herself in,” the report states.
City officials told KSAT via email Monday, “This suit was originally filed in 2023 and expressed Plaintiffs’ intent to seek a class certification, which they have now done. The City continues to maintain that there is no basis for class certification nor any merit to Plaintiffs claims.”
The case is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday morning on a separate motion, court records show.
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