case gets dismissed. where is there justice for her? >> where's the criminal system? that is the system that's designed to address the kind of crime that she's reporting. >> and what can happen on the night shift. >> it's probably one of the most underreported crimes in society today. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. the wyncote foundation. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from millicent bell, through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. >> lowell bergman: at the end of the day, when most of the world goes home, a nearly invisible workforce clocks in. millions of janitors clean malls, banks, big box stores, the office where you work. many janitors are women who work at night, in empty buildings, in isolation, and that can put them in danger. >> bergman: maria bojorquez cleaned offices in san francisco's iconic ferry building. >> bergman: what happened to maria bojorquez is not an isolated incident. according to the department of justice, there are more than 17,000 sexual assaults at work a year. we began investigating this three years ago and found it was rampant among women farmworkers who are often undocumented and isolated. now we have discovered a similar pattern of violent sexual abuse against women janitors who work the nightshift. we have uncovered cases of sexual assault and rape at companies large and small, and in the darkest corners of this industry, janitors who were sexually assaulted and held captive by their bosses. >> these women work every day to feed their family and try to do the best they can with dignity, and it's really up to the company to protect them. >> bergman: anna park is the lead attorney in los angeles for the equal employment opportunity commission, the federal agency that enforces sexual harassment laws in the workplace. the eeoc cannot bring criminal charges against alleged perpetrators, but it can sue a perpetrator's employer. the common theme is employers not taking these complaints seriously. >> we started seeing over time more physical, aggressive harassment: women being raped, subject to sexual battery. >> bergman: we looked into the largest janitorial employer in the united states: abm, a multibillion- dollar company whose clients include airports, office buildings, and the pentagon. abm says it has one of the most sophisticated worker protection programs in the industry. but we found more than 40 sexual harassment lawsuits against abm over the past two decades. in fact, abm is one of the few companies to have been sued by the eeoc multiple times for sexual harassment. anna park was in charge of the biggest eeoc sexual harassment case against abm. >> when the eeoc brought a class case against abm industries, i felt it exemplified one of the worst handlings by a company of complaints of harassment. >> bergman: you know it's the largest janitorial company of its kind in the nation? >> yes, and i think that's what shocked us the most, being as large as they were: the lack of action, lack of attention, lack of sense of responsibility. and in this case, they did none of that. >> bergman: none? >> they did none of that. >> bergman: the case began nearly a decade ago, deep in california's central valley. maria magana, one of the claimants in the case, has not publicly talked about what happened to her until now. >> good morning, mr. vasquez. >> good morning. >> bergman: jose vasquez was a supervisor for abm. >> did you supervise maria magana? >> yes. >> is it fair to say that there were work sites where maria magana was the only janitor cleaning up the site? >> yes. >> did you have sex with maria magana against her will at the abm work site? >> no. >> did you rape maria magana at the abm work site? >> no. >> bergman: magana never reported the assault to the company or the police. and so vasquez was able to continue supervising women at abm sites all over bakersfield. several months later, abm received anonymous letters pleading for help, and alleging that vasquez had been in jail for sexual harassment. >> they received anonymous complaints putting them on notice of this sexual predator. they did nothing. >> bergman: had they checked, abm would have learned that vasquez was a registered sex offender who had served prison time for raping a teenage girl. in fact, abm never did a background check when they hired vasquez. >> is this your application when you first applied for a job at abm? >> yes. >> it asks, "have you ever been convicted of a crime?" and that's blank. did you leave that blank? >> yes. >> where it says, "if yes, please explain," did you leave that blank? >> yes. >> why is the application not fully filled out? >> because i wanted the job. >> bergman: vasquez had been working for abm for nearly a year when those anonymous letters started to arrive, alleging he had assaulted other janitors, including a woman named erika. >> bergman: morales never went to the police to complain about vasquez, but she would become the lead plaintiff in that eeoc class action lawsuit with 20 other women. they alleged the company did not protect them from sexual harassment, assault, and rape by vasquez and more than a dozen other men working for abm. >> that's a huge number of bad actors, which really pointed to the systematic problem that we saw, and the failure of the company to really hold their managers and employees accountable that harassment is not tolerated in the workplace. that message did not come through. >> bergman: once abm learned of the rape conviction, vasquez quit. we looked for vasquez at the address listed on the state's sex offender registry, but he had moved. when we tracked him down, he declined to talk to us on camera. >> we just want your response, mr. vasquez, to these allegations. >> bergman: vasquez was never charged for the alleged assaults. >> bergman: off camera, he told us that the women were in it for the money. the abm case was resolved in 2010, with the company agreeing to pay $5.8 million, one of the largest sexual harassment settlements in eeoc history. while the company did not admit any wrongdoing, it agreed to strengthen its procedures for the handling of sexual harassment complaints. but less than a month later, the eeoc sued abm again. >> we have seen this time and time again, where there are certain complaints received by certain segments of their workforce. it just doesn't matter. it's not that important. it is a cost of doing business. >> bergman: henrik slipsager, seen here in the new york stock exchange, was ceo of abm at the time of the central valley class action suit. >> you're very good with a vacuum cleaner, that's for sure! >> don't tell my wife! >> bergman: though slipsager would not speak to us, he did participate in the cbs program undercover boss, where he posed as a janitor in his own company. >> we're going down. take me to 37. >> bergman: he got some advice. >> one thing abm could do better is have women wear pants, because if i have to run around and bend over, i gotta make sure somebody else doesn't see my behind or something like that, you know, like, as i'm bending over. >> abm is committed to fostering a professional and safe work environment for all of our employees. >> bergman: we spent over a year asking abm for an on-camera interview, but they declined. instead, they sent us this video taped statement. they also wrote us saying that cases we looked at predate, their current workplace policies they highlighted their 24-hour hotline, and harassment training for all employees >> we believe that our policies and procedures are the gold standard in the industry. 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 to be false and even malicious. >> bergman: we asked abm to comment on specific cases. they declined. >> it would not be appropriate for us to discuss those claims outside of our legal filings. >> bergman: but we found someone who had been inside abm: mary schultz, an attorney who once sued abm for sex discrimination, winning millions of dollars for her client. abm then hired her, and she worked for the company as a consultant for several years. >> i found abm to be a fascinating universe. this is a company that has national reach, that accommodates, trains, pays, provides benefits to ethnic groups from all over the world. it's a fascinating social dynamic and organizational dynamic, and i was intrigued by it and i wanted to help. >> bergman: you wanted to help because you perceived they had problems? >> i wanted to help because i perceived everybody had problems in that whole dynamic. the workers were having problems, the company was having problems. you have a lot of really good people, and you have some really bad people. >> bergman: during the period that you were there, there was a class action case from the eeoc pending in the central valley of california. and the eeoc regional attorney who brought the case said, "this was one of the worst handlings by a company of complaints of harassment" that she'd ever seen. >> i read the report. and what i saw in that, if that was true, was an abject failure by the hr department to implement processes and procedures that were there. >> bergman: when abm was sued in another sexual harassment case, the judge dismissed the suit in part because he found the company had acted appropriately. so i want to show you something... mary schultz deposed one of the alleged victims. do you remember miriam pacheco? we interviewed her. >> (video plays on ipad) >> do i remember her? >> bergman: well, you took her deposition. >> okay, but i've taken myriads of depositions. >> bergman: she's making serious allegations of rape. so then assuming miriam pacheco is telling the truth about what happened to her, but the case gets dismissed, where is there justice for her? >> because the case was dismissed, again, it doesn't mean it didn't happen. the report that she provided was of a rape. where's the criminal system? that is the system that's designed to address the kind of crime that she's reporting. what the company sees is, "we've got an issue here, maybe this is credible, maybe it isn't. maybe this happened, maybe it didn't." do companies just start opening the wallet and paying out money to people whose circumstances they believe? i think that would be horribly risky. you would be overwhelmed with trying to sort out the good from the bad. >> bergman: and when abm does not believe they did anything wrong, they vigorously contest it. maria bojorquez, the janitor who alleged she was raped in san francisco's ferry building, sued abm for sexual harassment and retaliation, and won. a jury awarded her $800,000 in 2012. the alleged perpetrator denied the allegations, and abm is appealing the verdict. >> we made substantial efforts to impeach the credibility of ms. bojorquez. >> bergman: their lawyers argued their case in front of an appellate court this past may, and while the company disputed bojorquez's claims, their lawyer said they cannot always prevent abuses before they happen. >> abm has tens of thousands of employees located across the united states and internationally, many who work in remote locations at night with minimal supervision. bad things sometimes happen. >> often, the realities of the janitorial industry go undetected. janitors are essentially invisible because they work at night. and for enforcement people as well, there isn't an aggressive enforcement program at night. >> bergman: lilia garcia-brower is an industry expert who monitors the working conditions of janitors. i'm used to the janitor being someone who's part of the company, or part of a school district or part of the mall, you know, part of the company itself. but that's changed, right? >> because of the economic realities, there's a huge shift to contracting out services, and the nature of the industry, the structure of the industry, makes it that much harder for contractors to ensure that the workplace is safe. many companies look very good on paper, but what matters is what's happening at the worksite. employers need to make sure that their supervisors are following their directives and that their employees know what to do if they come into harm's way. if they can't afford to do that, they shouldn't be in business. >> bergman: abm is by no means the only janitorial company that has faced sexual harrasment cases. we identified another employer who says they have good policies and they were willing to talk to us. >> anytime we get a complaint of sexual harassment, it's regarded very seriously, and we do a prompt and thorough investigation. >> bergman: bill stejskal is the senior vice president of human resources at sms, a janitorial company based in nashville, tennessee, with contracts throughout the country. >> we do a very good job, i believe, of training our supervisors and management on harassment prevention. >> bergman: your policies call for any complaint to be investigated, right? >> they do. if we find that somebody has indeed violated our policies on harassment, they'll be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of their employment. >> bergman: have you ever been involved in trying to determine the truth of any of these allegations? >> sure, that's what we're trying to accomplish during the investigation, and that is to learn the truth. sometimes we are able to find out what the truth is, other times the truth is elusive. >> bergman: leticia zuniga worked for sms, cleaning a mall in a minneapolis suburb. her manager controlled her schedule and had the power to hire and fire. >> bergman: zuniga left sms without filing a complaint. several months later, she reported the incidents to the police and then filed a lawsuit against sms. when you became aware of the zuniga case... >> right. >> bergman: what was your reaction? >> my reaction was astonishment, i mean, i found it hard to believe and was so disappointed that a manager of ours could ever commit such acts against one of our employees. or on the other hand, that we could possibly have an employee that would make up a story about a manager like that committing such acts if he didn't do them. >> bergman: rape, she was talking about. >> right, she alleged that she had been, um, raped. what mattered to us was finding out the truth about what happened. >> bergman: so what did you do? how did you investigate? >> we did the best we could under the circumstances, but when we first learned of her situation, nearly 300 days had passed since the last time she alleged to have been raped by the manager. so when you're thinking in terms of prompt and thorough, this was a very difficult investigation. >> we were able to talk to the accused,nd he denied that those occurred. >> mr. gonzales, do you remember that you're under oath? >> i do. >> bergman: as part of zuniga's lawsuit, her manager, marco gonzalez, was questioned about her allegations in this videotaped deposition. >> mr. gonzales, did you ever attempt to have sexual intercourse with ms. zuniga? >> no. >> did you ever touch ms. zuniga's vagina? >> no. >> did ms. zuniga ever bleed in your office? >> no. >> did ms. zuniga ever say, "no, no, no," to you? >> in what respect? >> in the course of a sexual interaction. >> no. >> bergman: gonzalez told sms that zuniga's accusations were, quote, "preposterous." sms instructed gonzalez to gather witness statements about zuniga, but gonzalez went a step further. he secretly recorded these interviews with employees. >> marco gonzalez had a camera hidden in his office. and the women, it seems like, have no idea that there is a camera there. >> he's fishing for any kind of bad behavior she might have engaged in, and what he came up with was just gossip, basically, about leticia. >> bergman: there are instructions to marco gonzales to gather statements related to the claims that appear to be made against him. is that part of your investigation? >> that wouldn't be protocol to ask the accused to be involved in the investigation, no. >> bergman: well, this is him conducting his investigation. he taped it all. he in a sense surveilled himself doing the investigation. and you never learned that before? >> i don't remember being told that, and i certainly have never seen that before. i have a legal director and staff/employee relations specialist that conduct the investigations, and i don't get involved at that level. >> bergman: debbi tannock was in charge of the investigation for sms. >> in this email, you're asking mr. gonzalez to gather witness statements? >> yes. >> does it seem strange to ask the harasser to go gather evidence from his supervisees? >> yeah. that wouldn't make sense to me. >> do you know why you did that? >> no, i don't. i might have been instructed to, i don't know. >> bergman: while gonzalez was gathering evidence for sms, he would change his story multiple times. >> you told the police that you and ms. zuniga kissed, correct? >> yes. >> you stated that she took out your penis and masturbated you? >> yes. >> is what y said to the police not true? >> right, yes. >> so you felt the best thing to do was to lie to the police when you spoke to them? >> at that time, yes. >> bergman: as part of the case, zuniga's lawyers were able to track down his work computer and conduct a forensic analysis. they discovered that his internet search history was filled with violent pornography, including sites that appeared to specialize in rape. >> he always was showing me pornography videos. i was feeling uncomfortable, i'm like... and he even shut the lights off and everything. i said, "marco, why are you showing me this?" >> bergman: karla perez also worked for sms. this is the first time she says she has shared her full story. >> one day he says, "karla, come into the office." i came into the office and he pulled his pants down and he take his things out, and he make me... and he make me put it in his mouth... you know, i put his stuff in my mouth, in my mouth, and... (sighs) and he closed the door and he said to me, "nobody will know about this. nobody will believe you." >> bergman: perez quit without filing a complaint with sms. eventually, she went to the police. gonzalez denied the allegations. a second woman went in and complained to the police. >> i'm not aware of that. >> bergman: and what about a computer that marco gonzalez had that showed that he was accessing rape porn sites? >> yeah, i don't remember hearing about that. >> bergman: no one told you about it? >> not that i can recall. >> bergman: and then you know that the manager changed his story a number of times about what happened? >> i'm not aware of that. >> bergman: you don't know that he told the police two different stories? >> i don't remember ever hearing that. >> bergman: during the lawsuit, sms was ordered to produce internal sexual harassment complaints. the records showed a number of incomplete investigations and dozens of accusations against other supervisors. three years of records from your internal complaint system showed that somewhere around 31 of those were made against supervisors. that never got your attention? >> no. >> bergman: you don't review these complaints? you don't have a briefing every quarter? >> oh, i have briefings, lowell, on the cases, but i have staff specifically assigned to that. >> bergman: well, a number don't appear to have any follow-up investigation, which would seem to violate your policy. >> again, every complaint or account of behavior that might be sexual harassment we take very seriously, and we want to do a prompt and thorough investigation. >> bergman: but there would be a file somewhere, wouldn't there? >> there should be, yes. it could be as simple as, "do you remember investigating?" "yes, i did." "where are the notes?" "i don't know where the notes are." >> bergman: there may have been an investigation, but there's no record of it. >> that's correct. >> bergman: zuniga's lawsuit lasted three years. the case was settled in 2012. sms did not admit any wrongdoing. marco gonzalez left sms, but his former boss would later recommend him for a regional position, writing that, quote, "this guy would rock." in the end, he was not rehired. gonzalez declined our repeated attempts to speak with him on camera. as for the criminal investigation, the police believed both women and brought the case to the county attorney in minneapolis. but he chose not to prosecute. >> unfortunately and tragically in this case, all we had basically was her word and his word. is that sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt? our experience clearly says it is not. the defense attorney would say, "ladies and gentlemen of the jury, where's the physical evidence, where's the semen, where's the pictures, where's the video, where's the witnesses? why did it take her a year-plus? did she now finally report it merely to get money from him?" i do believe these crimes were committed, but i also believe, unfortunately, we simply could not prove it. >> the percentage of rape cases that are actually investigated and prosecuted are quite low. it's probably one of the most under-reported crimes in society today. it's also probably the least- prosecuted crime in society today. we listened to the survivors, who spoke not only... >> bergman: senator kirsten gillibrand authored legislation that would change how sexual assault is handled in the military, and now she's backing new federal laws to strengthen rape investigations on college campuses. >> with this bill, instead of treating accusers and accused with unequal standards, the accusers and accused would have the same access to all due process rights. >> bergman: when we look at the janitorial industry, for instance, we're talking about low-paid, often undocumented people. >> right. so those who are targeted in that industry are vulnerable, so they may not be able to navigate the legal system, they may not feel that their immigration status allows them to even report a complaint. >> bergman: we interviewed a county attorney who declined to prosecute a rape case in which he believed the victim, but he said, "unfortunately and tragically in this case, all we had basically was her word and his word." do you agree? do you need physical evidence to prosecute rape? >> no, because the testimony of the survivor is evidence, and so it's whether she's believable or not. and so i think if we have a national conversation about the prevalence of sexual violence, perhaps more juries will believe the testimony of the survivor when she tells what happened to her. >> bergman: it appears that the institutions also rally around the supervisors. >> of course they do. and so when you're trying to reform these systems, all the bias is against the survivors. all the bias is against these victims who tend to be the least powerful, the least able to raise their voice, the least able to demand justice. >> bergman: roughly half of the two million janitors in america work for tiny operations, some legal and some not. >> because of its low cost barrier to entry. so you get a mop and a broom and you have lilia's cleaning, and all of a sudden, you start a business. what that means is that we have a significant amount of illegitimate companies, companies that are not registered with the state, that aren't paying taxes and aren't following the laws. (speaking spanish) >> bergman: garcia-brower's organization investigates violations in the janitorial industry. it's funded by unionized companies, including abm. >> we have a team of field investigators, individuals who were former janitors. they have a very intimate connection with how the industry operates, and our investigators are our secret weapon. >> bergman: the investigators go out at night and slip into office parks looking for cleaning crews. >> bergman: what they say their work has exposed is a criminal culture. >> contractors show up intoxicated at the worksite and they harass the workers. we've had contractors who have a gun on the table while workers go pick up a check. and because so many of these workers are in the shadows, they don't understand their right to be free from any violence. 50% of the companies that the mctf looks at are completely underground. that's where the criminal element lives in the industry. >> bergman: when we looked into this criminal element, we found janitors who were trafficked and sexually assaulted. >> for me, it was i was working and i was paying off the money that i owe. but i did not know that i still can say no, and when it's enough, it's enough. >> bergman: oksana, an immigrant from ukraine, came to the united states with a promise of a good job and good pay. >> the deal was i come here, i work for three years, and i pay him off with my work. i'd pay off my debt, and then i would be on my own. that was my understanding. >> bergman: oksana traveled from her hometown in ukraine to philadelphia, where she met her new boss. >> when i came to the house, he came out, and the first thing for welcome to america was, "about time you arrive, bitch." >> bergman: on arrival, oksana learned that her boss beat and sexually assaulted her fellow janitors. one was her sister-in-law. >> she got beat up, dragged down the stairs by her hair, got raped. that night, i did not sleep because i'm, like, "well, i don't know if there's anybody else who's coming, and what if he's gonna give me a welcome present too, like she'd gotten one?" so i was terrified. >> bergman: fear kept oksana and others cleaning targets, wal-marts, and other big box stores throughout the northeast for a gang of ukrainian brothers led by their boss, omelyan botsvynyuk. >> the botsvynyuk brothers were supplying laborers to generally subcontractors of companies that were cleaning stores. and if you did go in that store in the middle of the night, you might see a cleaning crew cleaning the floors, cleaning the bathrooms. that's the type of work that the victims in this case were doing seven nights a week, every day of the year. >> bergman: fbi special agent ned conway spent years investigating the case. >> unlike smuggling, where the debt is paid off once that person is smuggled in-- you pay your fee to the service provider, if you will-- traffickers force the individuals, the victims, to work off that debt, and that debt is never paid off, and it essentially becomes slavery. >> bergman: and the sexual assault on the women, that's a form of coercion? >> rape is a crime of violence. it's about controlling. it's making sure that those women understand that the botsvynyuk brothers are in charge. it's keeping every one of those workers in constant fear so that they stay there working every day. >> bergman: four of the five botsvynyuk brothers were charged and convicted. omelyan, the ringleader and rapist, received a life sentence. and oksana? she escaped with the help of a target employee whom she would later marry. >> we think slavery doesn't exist, or if it does exist, it's in some far-off land. slavery is alive and well worldwide, and it is in the united states as well. >> bergman: dave rogers is the head of the human trafficking initiative of the fbi's civil rights unit. i don't see people being led around in chains. >> and that's one of the misconceptions. i can coerce you psychologically, i can coerce you emotionally, i can coerce you financially. >> bergman: how big is this problem? >> we don't know. i'm going to be honest with you, we have no idea the prevalence. but the fbi has more and more cases every year. >> bergman: there are not many studies on the abuse of janitors. one of the few, a small study in sandiego funded bythe department of justice, found that nearly 40% of the undocumented janitors surveyed were trafficked, and many of them reported threats of physical violence, including sexual assault. >> this is people's reality. this is what they are experiencing day to day. we're looking at changing how the industry operates, because everywhere there's a building, there's a janitor. >> bergman: for the women who spoke out, the journey is not over. maria magana is still a nightshift janitor. she received a monetary settlement as part of her lawsuit, but she feels that justice has been elusive. >> bergman: no longer a janitor, erika morales now uses her voice to raise awareness on an internet radio show. >> bergman: since leticia zuniga spoke out, she has continued toa work as a janitor, now for abm >> bergman: as leticia tries to heal herself and her family she still leaves home every evening like so many other women to work on the night shift. >> i am transgender, but i like to say that i'm a girl stuck in a boy's body. >> a story about change. >> cross-hormones, i can get a deep voice, i can get a beard, i can get a flat chest. >> family. >> i feel in a sense like something's been robbed, right? so my daughter's gone. >> and what it's like. >> now i'm actually me. >> "growing up trans." >> go to pbs.org/frontline. >> many companies look very good on paper. >> for additional reporting from our partners at univision, the center for investigative reporting, the investigative reporting program, and kqed. >> but what matters is what's happening at the work site. >> and connect to thfrontline community on facebook, twitter, and our new tumblr page. and if stories like this matter to you, then sign up for our newsletter at pbs.org/frontline. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. the wyncote foundation. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from millicent bell, through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. frontline's "rape on the night shift" is available on dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-play-pbs. frontline is also available for download on itunes. mother: "what are you doing?" possibilities, your day is filled with them. dance instructor: "reach up, energy in the finger tips. collapse." woman: "t.v., play downton abbey." and pbs helps everyone discover theirs. anytime, anywhere. father: "up in the sky, you might see it." pbs, we're with you, for life. announcer: this series was made possible thanks to the generous support of our donors. narrator: easter monday, april 1916. a small group of armed rebels takes to the streets of dublin in an attempt to overthrow british rule in ireland. [cannon fire] at this time, britain is fighting an epic war against germany, its army of millions, including 200,000 irishmen, suffering casualties in the fields of europe on a scale never seen before. the uprising in dublin is doomed from the start.