Oklahoma Drilling Contractor to Pay $650K in Age, Disability Discrimination Suit

An Oklahoma-based oil and gas drilling contractor will pay $650,000 to settle a federal age and disability discrimination lawsuit.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said Horizontal Well Drillers LLC (HWD), based a Purcell, Okla.-based oil and gas drilling contractor, will pay $650,000 to a fired worker and hundreds of unsuccessful job applicants to resolve the lawsuit filed by EEOC.

According to the suit, HWD hired Wilbert Glover as a rig hand before forcing him to undergo an unlawful medical exam and then fired him based on health information it obtained from the exam. The agency also alleged HWD rejected rig hand applicants who were older than 40 because of their age.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which restricts the use of medical exams in employment and prohibits employers from taking adverse employment actions against individuals because of disabilities.

These alleged actions also violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which protects applicants and employees who are 40 and older from discrimination because of age. The EEOC filed its lawsuit (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Horizontal Well Drillers LLC, No. 17-cv-0879-J) in August 2017 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

The consent decree settling the suit, entered by Judge Bernard M. Jones, requires HWD to pay monetary damages to Wilbert Glover and up to 484 applicants for whom the EEOC sought relief in the lawsuit. HWD liquidated and ceased all business operations in late 2019.

Topics Lawsuits Contractors Oklahoma