Shell Terminated Executive After Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis
NEWS PROVIDED BY Oberti Sullivan : Mar 31, 2022, 08:33 ET
HOUSTON, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — An amended petition was filed this week in the lawsuit against Shell alleging disability, pregnancy and sex discrimination.
Julia Shur, 47, an employee of Shell was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in June 2019. A year later, she was terminated for alleged performance reasons despite having led two transactions which resulted in more than $160 million in revenue for Shell that year.
According to the filing, Shur led a $120 million deal code-named Project Heron from her hospital bed while recovering from surgeries at Memorial Sloan Kettering. The petition quotes emails from twelve of her coworkers who sent Shur emails praising her job performance, leadership, mentoring style, and soft skills. Shell highlighted the Project Heron deal as a key divestment milestone in its Fourth Quarter results to institutional investors in January 2020. In May 2020, she received a Special Recognition Award payment for her outstanding work. Shur was medically cleared and returned to work on June 15, 2020, only to be terminated on June 25, 2020, and told it was for “performance reasons.”
“I worked from my hospital bed to get Project Heron signed and closed because I wanted part of my legacy to be one of professionalism and success, if I died,” Shur said, “To be terminated ten days after my return to work despite successfully completing Project Heron is mind-boggling to me.”
Shur’s lawyer, Mark Oberti, Oberti Sullivan LLP, stated that “evidence shows that an insecure male manager of Shur’s who was less accomplished, less connected, and less knowledgeable in her field had been waiting to activate a plan to illegally fire Shur. When she was stricken with cancer, he seized on that opportunity to launch his scheme.”
Oberti said: “Shell’s Code of Conduct states that its core values are “honesty,” “respect” and “integrity.” We don’t believe that firing a cancer victim who earned Shell $160+ million is consistent with these values. We believe it is consistent with illegal discrimination and think a jury will too.
A judge granted Shur’s request of preferential trial setting to begin on October 2, 2022.
SOURCE Oberti Sullivan
RELATED
Shell facing discrimination, retaliation lawsuit from former employee
Attorney says ‘plot’ to remove his client began as she was fighting stage 4 colon cancer
Syan Rhodes, Anchor/Reporter
Published:
HOUSTON – A Houston woman is suing Shell Oil Company, alleging disability, pregnancy, gender discrimination and retaliation.
Julia Shur said she was terminated from the company in June 2020, 10 days after she returned from medical leave for stage 4 colon cancer. The lawsuit states Shell said she was fired for “poor performance.”
Shur said it came as a shock, considering she continued working from her hospital bed during cancer treatment to close $100 million merger and acquisition deals.
“I didn’t know whether I would live or die. I was working on this first of all, to not to fail my team who put a lot of work in, but also to leave a legacy for my two little kids and the industry I had worked in for so long,” she said.
Shur is seeking more than $1 million in relief and damages from Shell.
“It was not just an unfair dismissal, but disability-related harassment, which began when she was pregnant that included numerous demonstrable falsehoods twisted into a negative narrative against my client that didn’t end until she was locked out of her own email after she brought the company $160 million in revenue,” her attorney Mark Oberti said.
In a statement to KPRC2, a Shell spokesman wrote:
“Allegations of workplace discrimination are taken very seriously at Shell. Given this is a personnel matter and now pending litigation, we cannot offer further comment.”
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
