Basic
Energy Services, L.P. has agreed to pay $250,000 and consented to
substantial injunctive relief to settle a sex discrimination and
retaliation suit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC charged in its
suit that the Midland, Texas-based company, a major oil well servicing
contractor, had discriminated against a former field attendant because
of her sex and then fired her because she complained about a
discriminatory promotion denial and sexual harassment.
According
to the EEOC's suit (No.5:08-CV-1361 in U.S. District Court for the
Western District of Louisiana, Shreveport Division), Basic Energy
Services denied Tawnya Smith, who worked for the company as a field
disposal attendant, a promotion to field supervisor in 2006 because of
her gender. Further, the EEOC asserted, Smith also was subjected to
months of sexual harassment by her immediate supervisor, Roger
Caldwell. After Smith filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC
and made an internal complaint about the sexual harassment, the suit
said, the company terminated her in March 2007 in retaliation.
The
EEOC's suit was resolved by a consent decree, which was signed by Judge
Tom Stagg on March 6, 2009 and entered into the record of U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Louisiana on March 6, 2009.
Sex
discrimination, including sexual harassment, and retaliation for
complaining about it violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Although
the company denied wrongdoing, it agreed to pay Tawnya Smith $250,000
in damages. Basic Energy also agreed to post and disseminate new or
revised anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies and have many
of its corporate officers and managers undergo annual training on sex
discrimination and the anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII. The
company will also develop and implement a recruiting and/or job
training program designed to increase a pool of female candidates for
promotion in all the company's Ark-La-Tex Division field positions,
excluding those positions typically held by females, for the decree's
three-year term. The company also agreed to report its compliance with
the decree terms to the EEOC.
"This resolution not only benefits
Ms. Smith, but also serves the interests of all working women,
particularly in industries and jobs that remain dominated by men," said
Jim Sacher, the EEOC's regional attorney in Houston. "This suit reminds
employers yet again that, regardless of the industry or job in
question, qualified female workers must be granted the same
opportunities as qualified males and be free to work without bias,
harassment or fear of retaliation. Employers who refuse to grant female
workers equal opportunities in the workplace and retaliate against them
for lodging discrimination complaints clearly do so at their peril."
Keith
Hill, field director of the EEOC's New Orleans Field Office, said, "The
EEOC's New Orleans Field Office remains committed to the vigorous
pursuit of employers who have denied women equal opportunities to which
they are entitled under the law -- especially when the employer then
retaliates against women who complained about discrimination."
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