ALAMEDA — Two Comerica Bank employees say they found a hidden camera inside a women’s restroom at an Alameda branch, then watched in dismay as the company did little to investigate their claims, according to a lawsuit filed this month.
The women’s discovery — and the company’s alleged inaction — were part of a broader culture of apathy toward complaints of sexual harassment, the lawsuit claimed. Along those lines, the lawsuit said the company created a hostile work environment, and that bank leaders failed to adequately address concerns of discrimination and retaliation among its employees.
A spokesperson for Comerica Bank said the company does not comment on legal matters.
One of the women said she found the camera — which had a red blinking light and two lens-like openings — duct-taped beneath a sink on Jan. 13, 2024, inside one of the bank’s buildings in Alameda, according to the filing. The woman claimed she alerted an acting manager and watched him put it into a bin that only managers could access.
Security footage inside the office later captured that same acting manager appearing to go back inside the building after work and approach the bin, the lawsuit said. The camera was later reported missing from the bin, and it was never found, according to the filing. The suit did not list an address for the bank.
Another employee later said she also saw the camera in the weeks before that incident, the lawsuit said. Yet both women said their concerns weren’t properly handled by supervisors and human resources employees. Instead, a branch manager allegedly told one woman to “just deal with it,” while the other woman said her performance evaluation scores dipped after reporting the camera — prompting her to ultimately leave the company about a year later.
Both women said they took time off work due to anxiety from the ordeal. They also alleged that the acting manager who was first notified about the camera showed a pattern of sexually harassing behavior that created a hostile work environment.
At one point, one of the women also found a recording device inside one of the bank’s vaults, the lawsuit said.
They also said they were never updated on the status of the company’s investigation into the camera, with one branch manager allegedly notifying at least one of them that “nothing could be done because the device could not be found, and the security camera footage was not at an angle where they were able to see if anyone removed the device from the security bin,” the lawsuit said. It also claimed the women were told that “everyone” was a suspect in the matter, including them.
The lawsuit, which was filed March 11 in Alameda County Superior Court, lists Jamara Walker and Tatiana Martinez as the plaintiffs seeking compensation for a range of damages and attorneys fees.