LAKE CHARLES, La. – One of the largest nondestructive testing and inspection companies in North America is being sued by a Louisiana woman who claims she was dismissed from her job due to racial discrimination and retaliation for her complaints.
Plaintiff Jennifer Semien filed her lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Lake Charles Division.
The named defendants include Acuren, headquartered in Texas; Connie Daigle, area admin lead; and Melissa Brown, human resources business partner.
Semien was the sole Black employee at Acuren Inspection Inc.’s Sulphur, Louisiana, branch office, she claims. She was employed by Acuren as a Site Admin II since her hiring on April 8, 2024.
She alleges, in her eight-page complaint, Acuren violated the Civil Rights Act and Louisiana Employment Discrimination law.
In July, she filed a charge of discrimination against the company with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights.
In her filing, she claims Acuren was “searching for reasons” to terminate her employment due to her race and in retaliation for her complaints about the company’s “discriminatory and harassing activities.”
Semien contends issues arose when, in January 2025, she was assigned the job duties of a white co-worker who was going on maternity leave. The duties mostly involved handling invoices for Westlake Corporation.
“This work was in addition to her already existing full-time, complete job duties, and this level of work was neither expected nor required of any of the plaintiff’s white co-employees,” she noted in her complaint.
Through this additional work, she discovered that Acuren technicians at Westlake consistently submitted late and inaccurate time sheets for invoicing.
“The plaintiff made it clear to her supervisor, Connie Daigle, that the deficiencies were caused by these technicians,” the complaint states. “The plaintiff requested assistance, but this was ignored.”
Instead, days later, Daigle allegedly “screamed and blamed” Siemen for the timesheet and invoice issues.
“The plaintiff began to suspect that this treatment was due to her race, rather than to her job performance,” the filing states.
Siemen alleges her annual evaluation – completed by Daigle – was “rife with false allegations.”
“When the plaintiff requested further information and confronted them with contradictory evidence on these issues, she was ignored,” the lawsuit states, noting that Daigle had not treated similarly situated white employees the same way.
Siemen, Daigle, and Brown eventually met to discuss her performance and recent evaluation. Siemen claims Daigle and Brown accused her of “deficient work performance” without any evidence and spoke to her in a “derogatory manner.”
“The plaintiff viewed this as an effort by the defendants to search for pretextual reasons for her termination or to force her to resign through constructive discharge,” the complaint states.
The heightened scrutiny continued, Siemen alleges, with Daigle instructing her to place her daily work on Daigle’s desk for review. Other Acuren employees then began to harass, scrutinize, and insult Siemen, she alleges.
Siemen advised Brown of her intent to file a formal complaint against Daigle, but Brown ignored it. One week later, Siemen’s employment was terminated.
She seeks compensatory, punitive, exemplary, general, legal, and equitable damages. She also seeks reinstatement of her employment, attorneys’ fees, and judicial interest.
Ducote Law Firm LLC in Lake Charles is representing Siemen in the action.
