Gillette-based Cyclone Drilling will pay a $45,000 settlement in a male-on-male sexual harassment lawsuit, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed suit against the company.

According to the lawsuit, Cyclone Drilling allegedly subjected employee Mark Lujan, a motorman and floorman at a Cyclone facility on Colorado's Western Slope, to ongoing sexual harassment from his second-line supervisor, Jim Stout.

Cyclone strongly disputes the allegations.

"The allegations are false in our opinion," said Patrick Hladky, contract manager for Cyclone Drilling.

Hladky said the company did not know about the allegations until six months after Lujan had left the company. He said the alleged sexual harassment actually amounted to horseplay, and said Stout was not reprimanded and is still with the company.

"I can't reprimand for something that didn't take place," Hladky said.

The alleged harassment took place from May through August 2004, according to the EEOC. Stout allegedly forced Lujan to endure unwelcome touching, grabbing and comments of a sexual nature during his employment on a drilling rig, according to EEOC.

"You'd think this would be a unique charge, but really it's not," said Patricia McMahon of the EEOC.

Approximately 16 percent of all sexual harassment charges handled by the EEOC involve male victims, according to the agency. The occurrence has steadily risen over the past 15 years.

In the Cyclone Drilling case, the EEOC further alleged that after Lujan complained about the harassment, he was retaliated against "to the point that he was forced to resign his employment," according to the EEOC. That's also a violation of equal employment rights.

Stefanie Struble, senior trial attorney with EEOC Denver Field Office, said there was testimony that the supervisor had similarly harassed other employees during the same time period.

"We felt the policy against illegal harassment under Title 7 (of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) was inadequate at Cyclone, and that they should get up to speed at training their employees about what is legal and illegal and to put a stop to this sort of thing," Struble said.

Under the settlement, Cyclone is required to conduct employee training regarding harassment, and amend its policies to reflect anti-retaliation as outlined in the Civil Rights Act.

"They thought they had a good case and it turned out they didn't have a good case, and I settled it with no fault," Hladky said.

Hladky indicated that the rough and abusive perception of the oil and gas industry of the 1970s and 1980s doesn't apply today. It's more professional than in years past. Yet workers do engage in horseplay just as in almost every workplace.

"When you have men working and living together for extended periods, there is going to be horseplay and playing around to break up the monotony of work," Hladky said. "To say there isn't horseplay would not be true."

Still, Hladky denies that it amounted to sexual harassment in this case.

Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com.