NEWTON worked at SHELL as a refinery process operator. During her tenure, she was discriminated against and harassed by supervisors and co-workers because of her gender. She was taunted with comments like, “If your pussy hurts, just stay home.” (Extract from complaint – link below)
By ANNIE SCIACCA | [email protected] | Bay Area News Group: PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
MARTINEZ — A former employee at Shell Oil’s refinery in Martinez is suing the massive oil company for “sex-based harassment, sex discrimination, (and) failure to take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment,” according to a copy of the lawsuit given to this news organization and originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The plaintiff, Ciara Newton, worked at Shell as a refinery process operator beginning in January 2016. In the complaint, she alleges that she was discriminated against and harassed by supervisors and co-workers because of her gender.
The lawsuit describes a male-dominated work setting in which coworkers made disparaging comments about women and in which supervisors undermined Newton and complained about women in the workplace.
In one example, Newton found a sticker on her desk that said, “If your (vagina) hurts, just stay home,” the lawsuit said. Separately, a supervisor allegedly said that “women do not last long in his department.”
Even after Newton reported the issues to the company’s human resources department, the harassment continued, the complaint said.
Sonya Smallets, the attorney representing Newton in the case, said that in her years of experience handling workplace harassment or discrimination, complaints about harassment often go unresolved by human resources departments.
Newton is also suing for wrongful termination, alleging that Shell retaliated when she complained of the sexual harassment and discrimination she experienced, as well as when she attempted to properly document and contain a sulfuric acid spill at the refinery. After trying to document the spill and tape off the area around it, a supervisor instructed her not to, so as not to get himself and others “in trouble” for not reporting it, according to the lawsuit.
In September 2016, Newton alleges, she was terminated by Shell for “unsatisfactory performance during the probationary period” just six days after a supervisor gave her a positive progress report and encouraged her to continue in her role as an operator.
Shell Oil did not respond to calls or email requests for comment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
