labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A recent EEOC settlement charges that a worldwide oil drilling company subjected black employees to racial harassment on offshore oil rigs. The harassment included a racially hostile work environment, including the display of nooses in the workplace on Rig 108.

Under the agreement, Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company (or H&P) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, will pay more than $290,000 in damages. H&P’s global operations include contract drilling in the U.S., South American and Africa, among others.

The suit alleges that H&P tolerated a hostile work environment for African American men and women aboard the oil rig, including derogatory language and race-based name-calling directed at black employees.

The nearly $300,000 in damages goes to 7 employees, for an average of more than $42,800 each.

In addition, the consent decree requires that H&P conduct anti-discrimination training and post a notice about the settlement. The company is forbidden to engage in racial harassment or retaliation against employees. It also requires that H&P redistribute the company’s policy prohibiting racial harassment to all employees, and that H&P report some types of complaints of harassment or retaliation to the EEOC for the next two years, for continued monitoring.

 “We are pleased that H & P has taken these important steps to improve its work environment,” said C. Emanuel Smith, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District, which includes Alabama, much of Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle. “The monetary relief for the victims in this case should remind employers that there is a high price to pay for racial harassment.”
Commenting from agency headquarters in Washington, EEOC Chair Naomi C. Earp noted that, “A noose is a racial icon that constitutes a severe form of harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Nooses are closely associated with racial intimidation, violence and death, and therefore have no business in the workplace. It’s time for corporate America to be more proactive in preventing and eliminating racist behavior. The EEOC intends to make clear that race and color discrimination in the workplace, whether verbal or behavioral, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

EEOC Birmingham District Director Delner Franklin-Thomas, said, “Despite what some may think, overt forms of race and color discrimination have resurfaced in today’s workplace – in addition to new and more subtle forms of racism. There has been strong evidence over the past two decades, as shown in this case, that racist language and nooses are far too common on the job.”

While not admitting any wrongdoing, H&P has agreed to the terms of the settlement.

This is just the most recent in a series of discrimination suits this year. The company, Quietflex Manufacturing Co., L.P., paid $2.8 million in its settlement with the workers. It denied any wrongdoing. The workers had staged a work stoppage to protest the discrimination, and were fired. The company, however, shortly afterward hired them back.

Target Corp. paid $775,000 in January as a result of a racial harassment suit that accused the company of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by creating a hostile work environment. Again, the EEOC acted on behalf of the complainant, an employee of the company’s Springfield, Pennsylvania plant who was training to become a store manager. EEOC said the employee, Michael Hill, faced racial harassment from a store manager and as a result was forced to resign. In the settlement, Target also agreed to conduct employee-training sessions at the Springfield store. The company denied any wrongdoing.

Jacqueline McNair, regional attorney for EEOC, said she expected the training program and Target’s emphasis on anti-discrimination policies would “create a more employee friendly work environment at Target’s facility.”

Title VII declares it illegal to discriminate against anyone because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in hiring. It also declares that a firm that creates a hostile work environment in essence forces the worker involved to resign. Title VII prohibits retaliation against any worker who makes a discrimination complaint. All of the companies mentioned in this article deny any wrongdoing.  

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