A Canadian oil and gas company has agreed to settle a lawsuit with workers working in Colorado. In a lawsuit filed against the company, Ensign Energy Services, the workers claimed they were “denied overtime pay because of the way they were compensated.” The lawsuit itself settled for $2 million and was approved by a “federal judge in Denver.”
An oil and gas company has agreed to settle a lawsuit with workers working in Colorado. In a lawsuit filed against the company, Ensign Energy Services, the workers claimed they were “denied overtime pay because of the way they were compensated.” The lawsuit itself settled for $2 million and was approved by a “federal judge in Denver.”
But what kind of work were the workers doing? Why exactly did they sue? Well, for starters, the workers were “measuring while drilling as part of the fracking process on wells north and east of Denver.” It was a big project that required a lot of time and manpower. However, not everyone felt they were being compensated fairly. In fact, about 60 workers filed complaints and legal filings over a three-year time span before 30 or so workers agreed to join together and file a collective class action lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, which was filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA), the workers claimed “they were legally entitled to overtime when the company…was classifying them as exempt from overtime.”
In a statement James Fosnaught, an attorney for the plaintiffs said:
“They were paying these guys a salary, which fits under the FLSA. These guys did not meet the exemption under the FLSA to be exempt from overtime.”
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Sander Karp, agreed with Fosnaught and believes “justice for workers is one of the most important civil rights issues.” Karp, who is a “well-known figure in labor and civil rights law,” wants to focus on “keeping the company honest,” and said: “There are a lot of cases where employers have attempted to use this method of payment. Now whether they had the specific intent of avoiding overtime pay, I don’t know.”
What does the Department of Labor have to say about the matter? Well, according to the department:
“Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act (the FLSA) must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. There is no limit in the Act on the number of hours employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek.”
The department’s website goes on the explain that the “FLSA “applies on a workweek basis,” and that “an employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular payday for the pay period in which the wages were earned.”
So far there has been no comment from Ensign, though the company has “made a good faith effort to settle the case.”
Sources:
$1.8 Million Awarded to Colorado Workers in Overtime Lawsuit Settlement
OIL DRILLING CO. AGREES TO $1.8M UNPAID OVERTIME SETTLEMENT
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