BEAUMONT, Texas — An Orange County man is suing a Beaumont company he claims gave preferential treatment to white employees and failed to deal with "frequent and offensive" racial discrimination from a supervisor and other workers.
Legal documents say Christopher Vickers used to work for Bison Specialty Services, LLC, and is suing the Beaumont company for "discriminating against him on the basis of race (African American) and by retaliating against him for opposing unlawful employment practices" according to a lawsuit filed earlier in 2022.
The company "provides turnaround and maintenance solutions to the refining and petrochemical, energy infrastructure, and power industries."
Vickers worked for the company from September 2018 until March 2021 according to the documents.
The lawsuit alleges Vickers' supervisor, Albert Leblanc, had a "habit of making jokes about people of color, including African Americans."
Leblanc is accused of describing "African Americans as lazy" and sending racist remarks, videos and memes in group messages sent to employees.
According to documents, "white employees fed off of each other’s laughter concerning jokes about African Americans."
"Mr. Leblanc's racial harassment towards Vickers was frequent and offensive," according to the documents.
The lawsuit also alleges the company gave white employees "preferential treatment" by allowing them to park in front of the facility and bring guns on the property.
Vickers claims he complained to the company's human resources department and to the general foreman about Leblanc's behavior but nothing was done. The lawsuit said Vickers was ordered to return to work after getting COVID-19 against company policy, and was ultimately fired while he was recovering from the illness.
The company was "established in 2016, is locally and privately owned," according to its website. The site says its "premier shop & yard, located in Beaumont, TX, was designed and built for heat exchanger cleaning and repair and is equipped with a closed-loop water recycling plant."