Working in an oilfield means long hours of physically demanding and exhausting conditions. For this reason, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division works to make sure these workers get the pay they are owed and deserve. It was only a year ago that the Dept. of Labor found oil and gas industry workers underpaid by more than $1.3M. At that time, they found overtime violations caused by numerous practices including misapplying exemptions from overtime failing to include bonus payments to employees when calculating overtime rates; not paying for time spent working off the clock, before and after scheduled work shifts. “The oil and gas industry is emblematic of the modern, fissured workplace where contracting and subcontracting have obscured the traditional relationship between employer and employee,” said Dr. David Weil, administrator the Wage and Hour Division.
Fast forward one year and violations are still occurring. The Dept. of Labor has added four companies to the list of violators and an additional $1.6 million in back wages for more than 2,500 employees. The investigations illustrate a pattern of industry employers failing to pay workers legally required overtime. “We continue to find unacceptably high numbers of violations in the oil and gas industry,” said Betty Campbell, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in the southwest. Investigations found that Jet Specialties, Inc. of Boerne; Frank’s International LLC and Stream –Flo USA LLC of Houston and Viking Onshore Drilling LLC of Odessa had violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions.
Visit the Department of Labor’s website for more information about federal wage laws. At https://www.dol.gov/
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