Feds file age, disability complaint against Purcell contract driller
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a complaint Wednesday against a Purcell-based drilling contractor, alleging it discriminated against job applicants older than 40 and those who had filed workers’ compensation claims.
The commission said Horizontal Well Drillers LLC violated federal age and disability discrimination laws in its hiring process, including putting notations on job applications about family medical history, age and previous disability or workers’ compensation claims. The infractions date to at least 2012, the complaint said.
Through a representative, company officials said they were reviewing the complaint Wednesday afternoon with their attorneys and had no immediate comment.
The EEOC complaint said a former CEO at the company, Steve Akerman, reviewed all applications for rig positions, including derrickhand, motorhand and floorhand. Staff highlighted portions of the applications dealing with age, medical and family medical history, and the CEO separated the applications into two piles. Applications that didn’t meet the CEO’s requirements were destroyed.
The company had a policy of not interviewing applicants who had made workers’ compensation claims, authorities said.
“As part of the company’s
hiring process, Horizontal Well Drillers routinely engaged a third-party vendor to perform a workers’ compensation background search on all applicants before the applicant’s scheduled interview and before a conditional offer of employment was made to the applicant,” the complaint said.
The complaint lists at least three applicants with industry experience who were not hired who either were older than 40 or had a prior work-related injury.
“Akerman told at least one subordinate employee that he did not believe that people age 40 or older are able to learn horizontal drilling and that he would not hire them for positions on the oil rigs, even if they have drilling experience,” the complaint said.
Hiring qualified people with experience and ability makes sense. Refusing to hire such people because of their age or previous work-related injuries does not.”
James R. Neely Jr., director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District office
Investigation began after complaint
The investigation came after a Horizontal Well Drilling applicant, Wilbert Glover, filed a complaint in April 2013 alleging employment discrimination on medical history grounds. The company hired Glover as a derrickhand and directed him to take a medical exam and lift test. A company doctor cleared Glover to work, but the company discharged him after receiving a report noting high blood pressure, the complaint said.
The EEOC also said the company failed to maintain employment records and didn’t file required annual reports with employment data categorized by race or ethnicity, gender and job category.
The agency said its attempts to reach a prelitigation settlement failed, and it issued Horizontal Well Drillers a notice of failure of conciliation in December 2016.
In its complaint, the agency seeks back pay as well as liquidated, compensatory and punitive damages. It also wants an injunction to prevent and address future discrimination in the hiring process.
“Using stereotypes about age and disabilities to screen out applicants for high-paying oil field jobs cannot be tolerated,” James R. Neely Jr., director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District office that covers Oklahoma, said in a news release. “Hiring qualified people with experience and ability makes sense. Refusing to hire such people because of their age or previous work-related injuries does not.”
Horizontal Well Drillers operates drilling rigs in Oklahoma, Kansas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Mexico, according to its website. The company was among three companies who won a contract last year from the Venezuelan government to drill horizontal wells in the Orinoco Belt.