Some old sexist views about women never die, as apparently was true at a nationwide drilling company that just came to terms in a Title VII lawsuit filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
According to the EEOC, Unit Drilling Company, which operates approximately 90 onshore drilling rigs in the Anadarko and Arkoma Basins, the Rocky Mountains, and the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, was guilty of systemic sex discrimination.
When women applied for jobs at Unit Drilling, they were told that the company did not hire women. Rejected female applicants testified that they were told by Unit employees that the company did not hire women because it only had “man camps,” that women were “too pretty” and that their presence would “distract the men,” the EEOC said.
On the eve of trial, the company agreed to settle the lawsuit for $40,000. That money will go to the five women who were denied jobs under the “no-women” policy. The company also will provide training on sex discrimination.
Hopefully, there aren’t many other companies out their who operated on this retrograde basis. If there are, this lawsuit and settlement ought to compel them to clean up their acts.
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