BP Pays Millions to Settle Gender-Discrimination Case

After the 2010 BP oil spill, several women who applied for employment with BP’s contractors to work on the cleanup filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that they were not considered for the jobs because of their gender. BP and the EEOC recently settled the case. BP denied any wrongdoing but agreed to pay $5.4 million to a class of female applicants in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

BP also agreed to include contractual safeguards that will require contractors to follow EEO laws, designate an employee to monitor the agreement with the EEOC and provide training for BP administrators who hire contractors.

According to the EEOC, BP will also “share lessons learned during the spill” with other companies in the oil industry “in order to further emphasize the importance of equal opportunity in hiring, even under circumstances as challenging as the events in 2010.”

The BP oil spill, the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, poured nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The massive cleanup effort created thousands of temporary jobs, including jobs for 4,500 unemployed workers hired to clean the beaches at pay rates of $18 and $32 per hour.

Federal law prohibits sex discrimination in all aspects of employment, including hiring, firing, job assignments, promotions and pay. WeComply has separate preventing discrimination and harassment training courses for managers and non-managerial employees, as well as special courses for supervisors in California, Connecticut and Canada. All the courses teach employees to recognize and appropriately deal with the real-world discrimination issues that arise on the job. 

Categories: Discrimination & Harassment Compliance
Tags: Age and Sex Discrimination