There were several incidents over a five-year period, according to a lawsuit against the company.
There is a problem with the rope at an Exxon Mobil facility in Louisiana so serious that the federal government is suing the company for failing to address the problem.
At least five nooses were found at the company’s Baton Rouge facility between 2016 and 2020, according to the lawsuit, and the company apparently did little to reduce acts of racial aggression.
“When employers become aware of racially offensive or threatening conduct in the workplace, they have a legal obligation to take prompt corrective action to stop it,” said Rudy Sustaita, regional attorney for the Houston District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunities, in a press release
The fifth noose incident occurred in December 2020 and another was reported by a black employee in January of that year.
The lawsuit claims that while Exxon did investigate some, but not all, incidents, the company “failed to take reasonably calculated steps to stop the harassment.”
Even isolated displays of racially threatening symbols are unacceptable in American workplaces,” Michael Kirkland, director of the EEOC’s New Orleans field office, said in a statement.
CBS News reported that the company is rejecting the lawsuit, saying it has a “zero tolerance policy for any form of harassment or discrimination in the workplace.”
People on social media were horrified to learn what had happened.
