ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a lawsuit Aug. 16 against Horizontal Well Drillers (HWD), alleging age and disability discrimination.
"Excluding qualified workers because of their age or because they were previously injured on the job is not only illegal, it is bad business," said Andrea G. Baran, regional attorney for EEOC's St. Louis District Office. "It not only robs job-seekers of an opportunity to work to support themselves and their families, it also causes businesses to lose out on valuable talent and experience."
According to the EEOC, HWD committed a practice of hiring discrimination by hiring based on applicants’ age and history of filing workers’ compensation claims. The suit says HWD received this information during employment applications.
"Using stereotypes about age and disabilities to screen out applicants for high-paying oil field jobs cannot be tolerated,” said James R. Neely Jr, director of EEOC's St. Louis District Office. “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."
The EEOC's St. Louis District Office handles agency operations in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and a portion of southern Illinois.