HOUSTON — A Houston-based oil and gas drilling company is facing a discrimination and retaliation claim.
Don Dyer filed a complaint Aug. 19 in Harris County District Court against Patterson-UTI Drilling Company LLC also known as Paterson UTI alleging liability and retaliation.
According to his complaint, Dyer was promoted from floor hand to drill superintendent by UTI in 2021. He claims that in March of 2021, he was among five candidates for a drilling rig manager positions and that the interviewing process was flawed and did not follow company policy and procedure. Specifically, Dyer claims company policy called for scoring each interview question but the operations manager in charge claimed he "would make the scores say what they needed to say."
He alleges those UTI chose for the promotions were a re-hired employee, and an employee with a disciplinary history and one with no rig manager experience and that an African-American candidate who was more qualified was denied a promotion. Dyer claims he faced retaliation after raising concerns about the interview and promotion process and received a right to sue from EEOC and that UTI entered into a consent decree in a previous employment discrimination harassment and retaliation suit with the EEOC in 2015.
Dyer seeks monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. He is represented by Cletus Ernster of The Ernster Law Firm PLLC in Houston.
Harris County District Court case number 2022-51702