Overtime Pay Lawsuits in the Oil and Gas Industry: What You Need to Know

In recent years, numerous lawsuits have been filed by employees in oil and gas jobs alleging that they were not appropriately paid their overtime rate. These claims associated with employees in oil and gas jobs have largely focused on laborers paid hourly with straight time for overtime or paid eight-day rates.

Any employee in the oil and gas industry likely knows that this type of work often requires long and hard hours. However, many employees are still within their rights to get paid for that work when it exceeds 40 hours in a week, and in certain situations, salaried workers in oil and gas jobs may also have a valid claim for overtime payment.

Several different industry jobs have been investigated for possible violations of wage and hour laws. These include tool workers, service supervisors, field coordinators, pipeline inspectors, field operators and engineers, directional drillers, pumpers and lease operators and closed loop operators.

Due to the demanding nature of oil and gas industry work, technical service workers are often required to work more than 40 hours a week. Sometimes these employees can even log as many as 100 hours in a week, but when they are not paid appropriate overtime compensation this could lead to a legal violation.

Evaluating Overtime

Employers are allowed to request employees to work large amounts of overtime, as this is not a direct violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. However, these employees who log additional hours are eligible to receive overtime pay. Overtime payments may be eligible for day rate, salaried and non-exempt hourly employees who work beyond 40 hours in a week.

However, the risk of logging additional hours, particularly without the support of overtime pay, can greatly increase an employee’s risk of suffering in an accident.

The rate of overtime pay is calculated at one and a half times the regular pay rate. According to the state of California Department of Industrial Relations, overtime is based on the regular rate of pay or the compensation typically provided to that worker for the work they perform. This can include salary, hourly earnings, commissions, and peace work earnings.

As explained by the California Chamber of Commerce, California overtime pay is largely based on the number of hours worked in a day for practically all non-exempt private sector California employees who are not protected by collective bargaining agreements.

Overtime in the Oil Industry

One of the key issues in many of these wage and hour oil industry claims has to do with whether or not using a day rate to pay workers meets the standards required by federal law. When an employer is allowed to pay non-exempt employees on a day rate basis, overtime compensation pay must be provided for those hours worked beyond 40 in a given week.

When a worker is required to log more hours or work more hours without getting those included in a paycheck for overtime purposes, the worker may be eligible to file a lawsuit regarding the unpaid funds, like was the case with Disney. In many cases, these lawsuits will involve other similarly-situated employees, leading to class action lawsuits.

Join a Free Oil and Gas Worker Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you work for an oil and gas company and you were not paid for all the overtime hours you worked, you may be entitled to compensation.

Learn More