SLB, the world’s biggest oil field services company, was found not liable by a jury for sexual harassment that a former female employee said she endured on drilling rigs.
(Bloomberg) — SLB, the world’s biggest oil field services company, was found not liable by a jury for sexual harassment that a former female employee said she endured on drilling rigs.
The civil suit in federal court in Houston sought more than $1 million in damages from SLB, which last year changed its name from Schlumberger Ltd. The eight-day trial offered rare public testimony about the plight of women working in America’s oil fields.
“While no industry is immune to these issues, we will continue to improve and strengthen our processes, and we wholeheartedly support and stand behind anyone who has been the victim of sexual harassment,” the company said in a statement after the verdict Wednesday.
The plaintiff, Jessica Cheatham, worked at SLB for more than two years and sued the company in 2020, alleging she was regularly subjected to sexually explicit comments. When she complained, SLB’s human resources department conspired with her harassers to end her career, her lawyer told jurors.
SLB denied company officials retaliated against Cheatham for her harassment claims. She didn’t gain oil field assignments in late 2019 as the industry was heading for a downturn, an attorney for the company said during the trial.
While sexual discrimination in the male-dominated oil sector isn’t uncommon, it’s rare for such lawsuits to go to trial. SLB had previously reached a financial settlement with another former employee, who initiated the lawsuit Cheatham later joined.
The case is Saidman v. Schlumberger, 20-cv-02193, US District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).
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