US Sues ExxonMobil For Noose At Louisiana Plant - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2023) A lawsuit has been filed against the ExxonMobil Corporation for violating US Federal law after a Black employee found a noose at the company's plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and company officials failed to protect the employee from racial discrimination, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said.

"When employers become aware of racially offensive or threatening conduct in the workplace, they have a legal obligation to take prompt, remedial action aimed at stopping it," the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a statement on Friday.

According to the lawsuit, the ExxonMobil employee reported the presence of a noose in 2020 when company officials were aware that three other nooses had been displayed at the Baton Rouge complex, which is a chemical plant and refinery.

The EEOC said ExxonMobil investigated some, but not all, of the incidents and neglected to take appropriate measures that would have ended the harassment of the employee and created a racially hostile work environment.

The EEOC explained that the noose is a longstanding symbol of violence associated with lynching and the symbol is inherently threatening and significantly alters the workplace environment for Black Americans.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said in a statement to US media that the company disagrees with the EEOC's findings, adding that it promptly performed a thorough investigation of the claim and found no evidence to support allegations of discrimination.

ExxonMobil has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of harassment or discrimination in the workplace and has established multiple ways for employees, contractors, suppliers or customers to safely report incidents of this nature, the statement added.