Key Energy and California Plaintiffs Propose Unpaid Overtime Class Action Settlement

Texas oil company Key Energy has reached a $3 million unpaid overtime class action settlement with California employees in two consolidated class actions that claim the company had violated California labor laws.

The California class action wage and hour lawsuits were filed by former Key Energy employees, who filed for preliminary approval for the potential unpaid overtime class action settlement. This unpaid overtime class action settlement has agreed to pay $3 million to the California employees affected by the alleged overtime violations.

The Key Energy employees allege that Key Energy violated the California Labor code and the California Business and Professions Code through their business practices. The parties decided to settle based on the strength of the claims, along with the parties wanting to end the litigation.

“Although plaintiffs and their counsel maintained a strong belief in the underlying merits of the claims, they also acknowledge the significant challenges posed by continued litigation through trial. [A]ccordingly, when balanced against the risk and expense of continued litigation, the settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable,” the Key Energy unpaid overtime class action settlement states.

Overview of Unpaid Overtime Class Action Settlement

Lead plaintiffs Paul Grillo and Manuel Zaragoza had filed their own California wage and hour lawsuits against Key Energy in late 2013 and early 2014 respectively, with the two cases joining in consolidation later in 2014.

Both plaintiffs had worked for Key Energy on one of the company’s offshore oil rigs in California, and argue that even though the company logged their hours proving overtime the company had regularly denied them overtime benefits. In addition, the company reportedly denied employees meal breaks and required employees to work past their shift periods.

In July 2016, Grillo and Zaragoza gained class certification, which covers Key Energy employees as far back as 2009. The current motion asking for the potential unpaid overtime class action settlement covers all legal fees and attorneys costs, totaling a $3 million amount to distribute.

With a Class consisting of 1,815 employees, the average payment would be $985 per person with each payment based on the number of paid hours the employee worked for the company between June 2009 and February 2017. The proposed unpaid overtime class action settlement has Grillo and Zaragoza each being awarded $10,000 as incentive payments for bringing forward the wage and hour lawsuit.

This Class Action California Wage and Hour lawsuit is Paul Grillo v. Key Energy Services LLC, et. al., Case No. 2:14-cv-00881 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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