Desperate to keep a restaurant job to support her children, a Jersey City woman said she endured years of sexual assault, groping and demeaning remarks by her boss and his brother, according to a lawsuit.

The 43-year-old single mother of teenage twins claimed in a lawsuit filed in Hudson County Superior Court that the owner of Wonder Bagels in Jersey City threatened to fire her after she was late several times in 2009.

"Issa (Salloum) came out and told me he wanted me to do what his wife don't do, and I asked what was that," the former restaurant employee alleges in her deposition given as part of the lawsuit. "And he told me that -- he told me that he wanted to have sex with me, and I was like, 'I'm not -- you know, that's not happening.'"

They also threatened to tell her boyfriend, the lawsuit adds.

Wonder Bagels on Sip Avenue in Jersey City. November 18, 2017 (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media)

The plaintiff's name is contained in the lawsuit, but NJ Advance Media is not identifying the woman because she is an alleged sexual assault victim.

Brothers and business partners Issa and Nasser Salloum, who are named in the lawsuit, are accused of repeatedly cornering the woman in the walk-in refrigerator, behind the grill and in the upstairs office, and putting their hands down her pants and up her shirt when no other employees were around.

The lawsuit, filed in April 2016, also accuses them of committing assault and battery by sexually assaulting her numerous times.

The former employee said she was hired at $8 an hour in 2006 to work six days a week taking orders, preparing food, and opening and sometimes closing the shop. Her salary rose to $10 an hour the following year, at the same time verbal abuse allegedly began.

Issa Salloum, the owner of the Sip Avenue restaurant, and his brother Nasser Salloum, a manager, called her "white trash" and "stupid bitch," quizzed her about her sex life, and made obscene gestures with produce, according to the lawsuit.

Issa began sexually assaulting the woman in 2009; Nasser, who filled in as manager when Issa would take extended vacations, in 2012, the complaint said.

The brothers adamantly deny the allegations and claim she is lying, according to court records and depositions.

"They are respected members of the community, and the allegations are false," Frank Babcock of Jersey City, attorney for the brothers, told NJ Advance Media. They operate five shops in Jersey City and one in Bayonne, according to the Wonder Bagels website.

NJ Advance Media attempted to reach the brothers for comment by phone at their Sip Avenue store and on multiple occasions in person at all of their Jersey City stores, but they were unavailable.

"I don't want to try case in the newspapers. I can't go into details," Babcock said.

In depositions taken in August, the Salloum brothers said the woman chose to quit months after spilling a large pot of scalding coffee on her foot in July 2014.

"We never told her she can't come back. We never heard from her. We were waiting for her to come" back, Nasser Salloum said in a deposition.

But the plaintiff's attorney, Brooke Barnett of Newark, said her client was fired. She was being punished for pursuing a worker's compensation claim for her injured foot, according to the lawsuit.

"I'm sure if (she) could go back to working her job at the bagel place -- minus the harassment, minus the assaults -- she'd go back tomorrow," Barnett said. "It's not Hollywood, it wasn't a big corporate job, but at the end of the day, it was her job."

Barnett said her client wanted to talk publicly about the case, filed in state Superior Court in Hudson County last year, because she has been inspired by the recent #MeToo movement and the flood of sexual harassment and misconduct cases that have come to light.

Barnett said she contacted NJ Advance Media in response to its call out to readers to tell about any incidents in the workplace regarding harassment and misconduct.

"The reason why I am coming out -- I have four daughters, and now two granddaughters, and I don't want them to go through what I went through," the plaintiff said. She said she is taking medication and undergoing therapy for anxiety and depression. At one time, she said she contemplated suicide, according to the deposition.

"But I just think of my daughters and my grandchildren. I'd like to be there for them," she said.

Barnett said she believes some of the allegations leveled by her client are crimes, but they decided that with the passage of time, it would be too difficult to pursue a criminal case.

The former employee said the assaults took place in the upstairs office, usually when she was told to come to get her paycheck, according to the lawsuit. She said the brothers were careful to avoid abusing her near the security cameras or when other employees were around, the complaint adds.

She said she never confided in any other employees whom she believed knew the brothers personally, according to the deposition. In 2012, she said she did confide in her sister, according to the lawsuit.

"I told my sister. She told me to leave there. I said I can't leave -- I have to take care of my younger two daughters," the plaintiff said.

NJ Advance Media could not reach the sister.

"The threat of termination hanging over the demands for sex were especially fearsome to (the) Plaintiff," according to the lawsuit, "because of her lack of education and ability to obtain employment." She did not graduate high school, the lawsuit said.

Also, Barnett said her client "did not have the strength years ago to go through the rigorous criminal justice system. The idea of talking about (the allegations) in the type of detail required for a conviction was not something she was willing to do at that time. Clearly she chose to heal herself through a more private option and setting by seeking therapy, in which she continues to do."

Staff reporter Sara Jerde contributed to this report.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati.