Monmouth County: A Monmouth County man says he found a hidden camera taped to a urinal at work — and his employer tried to sweep the incident under the rug by opening up a bogus investigation into him, according to a new Monmouth County lawsuit.
Jason Savage — a client success coordinator at human resources company TriNet USA, Inc. — says he discovered the camera, which was placed to “record the genitalia of individuals,” taped to a work urinal on July 22, the suit says.
The 27-year-old Ocean, NJ, man told The Post he was at the company’s Iselin office when he saw black electrical tape on the urinal.
“I noticed a flashing green light reflecting off the chrome of the urinal. Immediately, I was thrown off,” he said. “To my dismay, I saw a black box with a lens. I didn’t know how to react. I ripped my pants up. Work should be a place that should be safe. Why is there a recording device facing down at my genitals?”
His direct supervisor, David Swerdloff, heard him talking about it with a coworker and came into the bathroom, grabbing the camera telling them not to report it, the court papers say.
“No, don’t worry about it, I will handle it. I will go right to the police station and file a report,” Swerdloff told them, the suit claims.
But instead Swerdloff later told coworkers he “accidentally smashed the camera and, in a state of panic, hurled the device from his car off the Garden State Parkway overpass,” the court documents say.
Swerdloff tried to dissuade Savage and his friend from reporting it to cops saying, “you do not want to be fired; you have TriNet paying for your school, rent, and benefits,” the suit alleges.
But Savage and his pal eventually reported it to an anonymous work hotline, prompting Swerdloff, who suspected he could be fired, to tell Savage they need to “get their stories straight,” the filing says.
Swerdloff was “quietly” let go in September, but the payroll company allegedly didn’t tell the other employees why. Many of the workers were friends with Swerdloff and blamed Savage for getting him fired, the court papers say.
The suit says the company told Savage not to talk about what happened and wouldn’t give him a straight answer on whether they had reported it to cops.
Meanwhile, Savage was scared that Swerdloff “will do something to us physically, professionally or worse.”
Then in October, TriNet opened an investigation into Savage in an attempt to “dig up dirt on plaintiff to justify an otherwise retaliatory campaign,” the court documents charge.
Savage told The Post he believes a coworker, who is friends with Swerdloff, falsely told TriNet he made homophobic and anti-Muslim remarks about her.
Savage said he thinks the company believes, “If we terminate him maybe we can cut off a loose end.”
“They were trying to keep it under wraps because they knew I had information that could potentially harm their reputation, especially as an HR company,” Savage said. “It’s a public bathroom. My fear is that a child could have walked in there. That is so disturbing to me. I want everyone to know the truth about what happened to me.”
Savage’s lawyer, Matthew Luber, said the company told him they filed a police report — but when his client filed his own report Friday, cops said no other complaint had been lodged about the incident.
“This matter involves an egregious and shocking invasion of privacy,” Luber said. “Public exposure of this case is critical because, as alleged in the complaint, the company was more concerned with muzzling its employees than learning the truth.”
TriNet rep Renee Brotherton said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
“We are committed to creating a safe, professional work environment for our colleagues and take swift and appropriate actions to investigate any allegation that a company policy was not followed,” Brotherton said. “If policies are found to have been violated, we take appropriate action.”
Credit: New York Post
Well, the employer wanted to know how much BullS#@t his employees were full of!