A former chemist at the Shintech manufacturing plant in Plaquemine detailed years of sexual harassment and emotional abuse allegations against her ex-boss in a federal lawsuit recently filed in the U.S. Middle District Court of Louisiana.
Shintech is the world’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride resins, or PVC, a polymer widely deployed across the construction industry and used in several other sectors like health care and manufacturing. It is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based multinational Shin-Etsu Chemical, a Forbes Global corporation that operates as Japan’s largest chemical company.
Shintech hired Sarah C. Walters, a 46-year-old Calcasieu Parish woman, in late summer 2018 as a quality control clinician in one of the ethylene labs at its newly minted Plaquemine plant. Before taking the analyst job, she let her supervisor know she was opposed to a rotating shift because she didn’t want to work nights. The supervisor, identified in the lawsuit as Ric Boudreaux, assured Walters he would reassign her to a purely daytime position and convinced her to accept shift work on what was supposed to be a temporary basis, she said.
But he never reassigned her, despite repeated pleas from Walters, who said the rotating schedule upset her sleep patterns and took a devastating toll on her physical and mental health.
The plaintiff alleges Shintech failed to protect her from the sexually hostile work environment Boudreaux fostered and allowed him to target her after she sought refuge. She is suing for punitive damages and injunctive relief.
She alleged Boudreaux began harassing her in November 2018 as they rode together to one of the work labs. He told Walters he enjoyed “sexual bondage” and “role playing” and asked if she knew what a “sub drop” was. Boudreaux then told her she would be considered “submissive,” according to the lawsuit. The following day, he emailed her a link entitled “what is a sub drop,” Walters alleged.
She said he began giving her pet names over the ensuing months, referring to her as “sweetie” and “Sarah Beth.” He also asked her out on multiple occasions, repeatedly made sexually explicit comments and inappropriately rubbed her while helping with work tasks, the lawsuit indicates.
Walters said the unwanted attention prompted her to start wearing an oversized Nomex lab suit on the job to “hide” her body.
“The plaintiff repeatedly declined each and every one of Boudreaux’s pervasive sexual comments and advances; however, it was impossible for (the) plaintiff to avoid Boudreaux altogether, as he was her direct supervisor and had knowledge of key issues,” the lawsuit stated.
Walters told her bosses she was having difficulty adjusting to the fluctuating work hours. She began having excruciating headaches at work as her insomnia worsened, and she was diagnosed with shingles in September 2019, according to the lawsuit. She said her mental health declined and she fell into a depression from the rotating shift.
In March 2020, Walters reported the alleged sexual harassment to company officials. She also told a human resources manager she was in line for a day-shift position and Boudreaux refused to properly train her. The HR team investigated her claims and Walters’ co-workers corroborated her allegations, according to her lawsuit. Officials told her they talked to Boudreaux about his behavior and “scared him,” but they never moved Walters from his department.
The suit alleges Boudreaux refused to change Walters’ work shift because he was aggravated she rebuffed his sexual advances.
In October 2021, she went on six months of disability leave and admitted herself into the Regions Behavioral Health Hospital. She later enrolled in an intensive five-week outpatient program at Jefferson Oaks. After finishing the program in February 2022, she began nine weeks of therapy at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital.
Her physician ordered she not be returned to night work due to her medical history. But when Walters returned to Shintech around May 2022, she was again placed under Boudreaux’s supervision with promises that he had been warned and “knew what was expected of him,” the lawsuit states.
Within days, however, he began sharing information about her leave of absence with other employees and telling them about her previous sexual harassment complaints, Walters’ civil claim says. A lead analyst told the plaintiff Boudreaux was angered by her return to work and began conspiring against her.
Again, Walters complained to plant leaders, who assured her that Boudreaux would be moved to another lab, the court filing indicates. But once more, the company reneged on its promise and he remained her direct supervisor, according to Walters, who alleges HR reps instructed her to “just avoid” Boudreaux. She resigned from Shintech in July 2022.
It was not clear if Boudreaux, who was not listed as a defendant in the case, remains employed with Shintech.
The subsidiary’s legal team has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, which was filed April 12. An attorney representing the company declined to comment Monday, and officials from the Plaquemine plant did not return to phone calls.
“(Walters) was also exposed to a sexually hostile work environment, which Shintech knew of and failed to meaningfully remediate in any way,” her attorney argued in her civil claim. “Feeling that she had been harassed, vilified, and humiliated by Boudreaux’s harassment and subsequent retaliation, all without any remedial action or legitimate concern from Shintech after reporting the same, plaintiff had no choice but to resign from her employment.”
Leave a Reply