ABM Responds
In the course of investigating Rape on the Night Shift, reporters for FRONTLINE spent more than a year asking ABM for an on-camera interview. The company declined, but in the below video statement provided by ABM, the company’s vice president and deputy general counsel, Miranda Tolar, says that “ABM is committed to fostering a professional and safe work environment for all employees.” The company has “implemented comprehensive, state-of-the-art policies and procedures to prevent harassment,” she says, adding that the firm takes the issue “very seriously.”
“We believe that our policies and procedures are the gold standard in the industry,” the statement reads. “Our systems work. In some cases, we have been made aware of inappropriate behavior and taken action. In other cases, allegations of wrongdoing have proven false — and even malicious — often by individuals previously in consensual relationships that ended. Sometimes there are other motivations.”
In a separate letter provided on June 11, 2015, attorneys for the company further detail the company’s policies, writing:
ABM has implemented comprehensive state of the art policies and procedures to prevent harassment. Those policies and procedures are provided to employees beginning when they are hired and thereafter on a continuing basis. Among other things, the policies and procedures include a written Policy Against Harassment in the Workplace (Exhibit “1”), a Workplace Investigations Policy (Exhibit “2”), and Employee Instructions, Information and Work Rules (available in 14 languages) regarding harassment (Exhibit “3”). ABM’s Policy Against Harassment is distributed to all employees at every level of the company, and all new hires receive ABM’s company Work Rules, including prohibitions against harassment.
The company provided FRONTLINE with copies of its policies as well. Its Policy Against Harassment in the Workplace is available at this link. The company’s Workplace Investigations Policy can be viewed here. ABM’s Employee Instructions, Information and Work Rules Regarding Harassment are available here.
