Sprawling Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Santander Bank Also Alleges Unpaid OT, Sexual Harassment [UPDATE]

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[UPDATE - March 12, 2018 - A federal judge in New Jersey has denied Santander Bank, N.A.'s motion to dismiss this lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan wrote Santander's motion to dismiss was "premature," while adding the plaintiff's charges were pleaded sufficiently enough to support a plausible claim for class certification.]

Santander Bank, N.A. and a teller, district manager and branch manager at the bank’s South Amboy, New Jersey branch are the defendants in a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a former branch operations manager who alleges she and similarly situated employees were not paid proper time-and-a-half hourly overtime wages for hours worked past 40 each workweek.

The plaintiff claims that soon after she moved into the operations manager role, Santander’s “scorecard policy” had changed to reflect working overtime would no longer be permitted. The woman asked the branch to hire more employees, since operating the bank while avoiding any overtime work would not be possible, the case reads, which, upon having her request denied, led the plaintiff to work 10-12 hours per week off the clock without pay. According to the lawsuit, the individual defendants were aware the plaintiff and proposed class members were working off the clock every week, “and yet did nothing to change this unlawful and unfair circumstance.”

From here, the complaint delves into allegations that the plaintiff was sexually harassed by a teller whom she supervised. The case alleges the teller “subjected [the plaintiff] to unwelcome sexually offensive and gender based behavior,” specifically:

-    Repeatedly offering to buy [the plaintiff] food after she had already told the teller not to;

-    Repeatedly making sexually offensive and unwelcome comments about the plaintiff’s “body including her legs, [buttocks], face and petite shape”;

-    Offering “to rub hot oil on [the plaintiff’s] body; and

-    Generally being rude, annoying, disrespectful and insubordinate toward the plaintiff.

The lawsuit goes on to note the plaintiff reported the teller’s behavior to the branch manager defendant, who allegedly did nothing to remedy the plaintiff’s situation.

“Other than giving [the teller] a written warning, which did not stop his sexually offensive and gender inappropriate behavior, Santander failed to undertake timely and reasonable measures to put a stop to the sexual harassment and hostile work environment [the teller] created for [the plaintiff],” the case asserts.

The teller mentioned above is at the center of allegations described further down in the complaint that claim after the man started at Santander, the plaintiff noticed “bills in large denominations stored in the vault were depleting at an alarming rate.” The plaintiff reported her suspicions to the defendants, the case says, noting that she believed the teller was embezzling money.

“To confirm her suspicions,” the case reads, “[the plaintiff] informed the [branch manager defendant] that she would arrange for [the teller] to come to work on a day he did not normally work so that she could audit him.” 

On that day, the complaint continues, the plaintiff instructed the teller not to open his cash drawer, informing him he would be audited that day. When the plaintiff returned to the teller’s window, he had allegedly left the premises and never again returned to work at Santander. Nearly $8,000 was missing from the teller’s drawer, the lawsuit claims, and the results of the audit were reportedly sent to the bank’s compliance office. 

Human resources came to the plaintiff’s branch some time later and informed her that the teller had “made multiple accusations against her,” including that the plaintiff had sexually harassed the teller and that the woman “was racist and that the audit of [the teller’s] cash draw was nothing more than a set up” to make the man look bad.

The plaintiff claims Santander’s human resources department made her feel as if she had done something wrong, and that the teller was the true victim, particularly because she was told by HR to keep quiet about the situation or be subject to immediate termination. From the lawsuit:

“[The plaintiff] suffered retaliation for having disclosed the theft of money committed by [the teller]. For instance, by the time the second quarter of 2016 ended, [the plaintiff] had opened close to 50 new bank accounts. When she received her incentive bonus, [the plaintiff] discovered that she had only been paid a bonus for about 24 accounts and did not receive the bonus branch operations managers get quarterly.”

The complaint’s allegations do not end here, as the plaintiff goes on to claim Santander breached a contract with her after failing to give her a promised pay raise and that the bank did not accept a doctor’s note requesting a day off to seek medical treatment for symptoms of vertigo.

The full 47-page complaint can be read below.