Four Oil, Gas Companies to Pay $1.75M Settlement After Allegedly Harassing Sixteen Former Employees
Four oil and gas companies agreed to pay $1.75 million to resolve allegations of systemic harassment and retaliation against 16 former workers, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced August 8 (EEOC v. Plains Pipeline, L.P., No. 20-00082 (D. N.M. 2019)).
The lead foreman at a Permian Basin pipeline in New Mexico allegedly harassed, threatened and assaulted male workers because they were African-American, biracial, Mexican and/or Native American, according to the EEOC’s lawsuit. In particular, the foreman frequently shoved, kneed, kicked, jabbed and sexually touched the men and called them profanity-laced racial and sexually-tinged slurs, the lawsuit alleged.
Several of the men were fired because they complained; others were allegedly fired for associating with the men who complained, according to the lawsuit. “This type of harassment, once tolerated in the oilfield as ‘boys being boys,’ has no place in any work environment, but is particularly dangerous in a hazardous environment such as working on the oil and gas pipelines,” EEOC trial attorney Jeff Lee said in the announcement.
