Texas Energy Company will pay $260,000 to settle racial harassment lawsuit

A Texas energy company will pay a $265,000 fine to settle charges that it harassed Black and Hispanic field mechanics.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced last week that Liberty Energy, Inc., doing business as Liberty Oilfield Services, LLC, will settle a racial and national origin discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of three mechanics .

According to the EEOC lawsuit, a Black field mechanic and two Hispanic employees at the Liberty Energy facility in Odessa, Texas, were subjected to a hostile environment and were called derogatory terms, including the use of the N-word and other slurs such as “beaner.” ” and “Wetback”.

Liberty Energy is an oilfield services company that provides technologies for onshore oil and natural gas exploration throughout North America.

Employees said they reported the discriminatory treatment to supervisors, management and human resources, but the company did not take effective corrective or remedial action.

The EEOC's lawsuit alleged that after reporting, the black mechanic was forced by management to perform undesirable work tasks and was isolated from his co-workers. Because management failed to take meaningful action to change the work atmosphere and discriminatory tasks following his complaint, he ultimately had no choice but to resign.

The alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race and national origin. The EEOC filed Civil Action No. 7:23-cv-00100 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Midland-Odessa Division, after initially attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its arbitration process.

As part of the two-year consent decree settling the lawsuit, in addition to providing financial relief to employees, Liberty Energy will adopt and disseminate a policy for all human resources and management personnel to effectively respond to reports of discrimination; Post a notice in the workplace informing employees of the agreement. Implement and develop a 1-800 hotline for reporting acts of discrimination and/or harassment; and provide employees with specialized training on federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including Title VII.

Source: EEOC

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Lawsuit Texas