ABM Janitorial discriminating practices Cleveland Ohio

I worked for this company for 12 months from 2007-2008. During that time, most of MY experience was good, but their business practices were shady.In 2007 I was hired as a supervisor for $9.50/ hr which is about 2 dollars below what that position should pay. I took that position and pay, because I was told that when an area manager job opened up, i would be considered for it, and it pays about 40.000/yr

Needless to say, when the job became open, I did not even know about it untill I met the "new" area manager which also happened to be my boss. A month later they were in a real pinch and about to loose an account which was about $300.000/yr, so they decided to give me the site manager position at that account. While there, I was responsible for hiring and firing staff. This is where the shady practices come into play. I was told to try and hire "black" people because they are the only ones who will work for the small pay. I was also told to hire or not hire, based on the way they looked physically. I had a black employee that had been with the company for 15 years and had not recieved one pay raise... EVER! Yet, white people who had 2 years or less were making $1.00 more per hour than my 15 year employee. I had spoken to the district manager, and even outlined several ways to get her a .50 cent an hour raise, but in 5 months that never happened.

As far as me, My supervisor, who was female, and my assistant, who is male, started a "secret" romantic relationship to which they thought no one knew. My assistant had been complaining that he needed more money and he wanted my job because I Made $5.50 more per hour than he did. 3 weeks later, I went in on my day off to get some applications and found my desk cleaned out and my assistant's items in there.It was evident that she had given him my job because of their relationship. At that moment, I quit.

I am not here to slam anyone, as I have my own cleaning company and am doing well. I just think that people need to realize that this is a decent company, except for the Akron area accounts. Unfortunately, I dont think that any of the higher-ups in the cleveland office know about it. They might want to look deeper into the Akron area manager.

Big daddy
austintown, Ohio
U.S.A.