A class action lawsuit seeking at least $100 million has been filed in Houston against Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), the world's largest oil field services company. Plaintiff Sara Saidman brought the suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging Schlumberger turns "a blind eye to the pattern of sexual harassment, sex (gender) discrimination, and physical danger that women are subjected to" while working on oil rigs. A Schlumberger spokesman told the Houston Business Journal that the company has not been served with the lawsuit. He did not comment further.

Women made up only 5.4% of field roles in Schlumberger as of 2018 and 16.2% of the entire company, according to the company's pay-gap report for 2018. The lawsuit claims that women who do work on rigs are required to share living quarters...with men who work on the rig...The lawsuit also alleges that when formal complaints of discrimination or harassment are filed with the human resource department or managers and supervisors, they often are ignored or dismissed "as 'just oil field talk' or 'a joke,'" and the women allegedly are often "blacklisted" by human resources...

Saidman began her career with Schlumberger as a measurements-while-drilling field engineer in May 2016...she claims male colleagues with whom she shared a trailer and bedroom on one site allegedly "encouraged the other men who worked on the rig to break into (her) room at night and ignore her if she did not consent to sexual activity,"...Schlumberger terminated Saidman's employment in May 2017, which the company claimed was due to policy infractions..."Other Schlumberger employees — most of whom are male — regularly committed the same or far worse infractions, often documenting and flaunting them on public forums. Yet Schlumberger did not discipline or terminate these employees for their policy violations....