Coastal Drilling East sued in Pennsylvania Western District Court over alleged race-based employment discrimination.

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Coastal Drilling East, a company that specializes in geotechnical construction in the natural gas industry based in Pennsylvania, is in the midst of a legal battle over the unlawful and discriminatory treatment of African American employees.

One of the African American rig-hands was subjected to racial harassment from his coworkers and peers that went as far as being handed a noose and seeing nooses openly displayed, as well as constantly being referred to as the N-word on numerous occasions. Even his direct supervisor tolerated and sometimes even participated in this blatant racism on occasion.

Costal Drilling became aware of this discrimination but never made the effort to take action to stop it from occurring. This gave the rig-hand no choice but to quit his job to escape the onslaught of insensitive remarks and actions.

The conduct of the management and workers at Coastal Drilling East is a direct violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits racial harassment and other race discrimination in employment, as well as religious harassment and retaliation for opposing such practices or participating in Title VII proceedings.

The EEOC have filed a lawsuit against Coastal Drilling in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania dubbed, “U.S. EEOC v. Coastal Drilling East, LLC, Civil Action No. 2:21-cv-01220-JFC” in hope to make this situation right or bring a least some justice to make up for the employee’s unjust treatment.

Events like this are avoidable. With skilled harassment prevention training and properly-crafted anti-harassment policies, management should ensure workers correctly report and managers properly investigate, document and resolve various forms of unlawful harassment, discrimination and retaliation.