Lafayette, Louisiana Oilfield Unpaid Overtime Lawyers

The Lafayette, Louisiana oilfield unpaid overtime attorneys at Miller & Hilgendorf may be able to help you if you worked long hours on the oilfield and weren’t paid time-and-a-half your hourly rate. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act workers are entitled to receive time-and-a-half their regular hourly rate of pay if they are required to work over 40 hours a week. Oilfield workers can often work long hours. The job can be challenging, and days can sometimes be long. Yet, if you are working long days on the job, you are entitled to be fairly compensated for the extra work.

Sometimes oil companies intentionally misclassify their workers or pay workers “day rates” or “shift rates” or use other misleading record-keeping schemes to avoid paying overtime. In 2021 alone the oil and gas industry’s revenue was an estimated $211.9 billion. Despite this revenue, oil and gas companies sometimes still try to cut corners and may sometimes fail to pay workers the overtime they may be entitled to receive. Recent Supreme Court rulings have found that some workers who were paid day rates, shift rates, or flat rates may be able to collect overtime pay even if they were highly compensated for their day or shift rates.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act employers are required to pay workers’ time-and-a-half their hourly rate if they work longer than a 40-hour workweek. While employers are permitted to count any day or hour as the start of the workweek, they must be consistent in their record-keeping and cannot average hours worked over two or several weeks. Most workers in the oil and gas industry are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act. If your employer claimed that you were exempt or classified you as a manager, supervisor, or placed you in another leadership role to avoid paying overtime, you may have been misclassified and may be entitled to receive overtime pay. If your employer classified you as an independent contractor to avoid paying you overtime, you might be entitled to receive overtime pay. The Lafayette, Louisiana oilfield unpaid overtime attorneys at Miller & Hilgendorf can help you fight for the overtime pay you might be entitled to receive. We can review your employer’s recordkeeping for discrepancies, violations, and errors, and can fight to help you receive backpay and overtime pay.

What Can I Do If I Wasn’t Paid Overtime as an Oilfield Worker?

If you were not paid overtime if you worked more than 40-hour workweeks on the oilfield, you may have the right to seek backpay for anywhere up to 3 years prior, damages for losses you might have suffered because of your employer’s failure to pay your wages, and attorney’s fees. Sometimes oil companies might claim that they don’t have records of the hours you worked or claim that they didn’t track hours because you were paid a day-rate or shift-rate. Under the law, employers are required to keep records of the hours employees worked, the total hours worked each day and workweek, records of the regular hourly pay rate, date the workweek begins, total overtime worked each week, wages paid, and more.

If your employer didn’t keep these records as required by law, you may be entitled to provide your own documentation of the hours you worked overtime and may be able to fight in court to receive compensation for these hours. In many cases, one worker alone isn’t the only one not being paid for overtime. Other workers may be able to collaborate and corroborate on the hours worked. An oilfield overtime attorney in Lafayette, Louisiana at Miller & Hilgendorf can work to reconstruct the hours you worked. We can demand that your employer turn over any evidence available to document the hours you worked and can work with you to calculate your overtime hours. If you believe you were denied overtime pay you were rightfully entitled to receive and your employer claims you were exempt or that records were not kept, you may want to speak to the oilfield overtime attorney in Lafayette, Louisiana at Miller & Hilgendorf today.

Were You Paid a Day-Rate or Shift-Rate on the Oilfield? 

If you were paid a day rate or shift rate on the oilfield, the Lafayette, Louisiana oilfield worker overtime attorney at Miller & Hilgendorf may be able to help you fight to receive overtime pay if you were required to work over 40-hours a week and didn’t receive time-and-a-half pay for the hours you worked. The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that oilfield workers who were paid a day-rate should not be classified as white-collar salaried workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Oilfield companies tried to claim that because workers were paid a high day-rate and classified as supervisors and managers, that their day-rate should have been considered a salary. The U.S. Supreme Court found that day-rate recordkeeping doesn’t qualify as a salary. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers are entitled to receive overtime pay if they work over 40-hours a week. Some oilfield companies attempted to avoid paying overtime by offering workers a day rate or shift rate and then asking them to work long hours. If you worked long hours on the oilfield, were paid a day rate or shift rate and were not compensated for overtime, you may be entitled to receive compensation for time-and-a-half your hourly rate for hours you worked overtime. The Lafayette, Louisiana oilfield worker overtime attorney at Miller & Hilgendorf can review your situation, help you understand your options, and fight to help you recover the unpaid overtime you might be entitled to receive.

Ways Oilfield Companies Try to Avoid Paying Overtime

There are several strategies oilfield companies might try to use to avoid paying overtime. At the end of the day, most oilfield workers are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act and are therefore not exempt from receiving overtime pay. If your employer failed to pay you overtime, the oilfield employee overtime lawyers in Lafayette, Louisiana at Miller & Hilgendorf may be able to help you receive the overtime pay you might deserve. Some oilfield workers may not even realize that they might be entitled to receive overtime pay. Oilfield companies might use several schemes to avoid paying oilfield workers the overtime pay they might deserve. Here are some ways that oilfield companies might violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.

• Paying day rates or shift rates.
• Classifying a worker as an independent contractor improperly to avoid paying benefits and overtime.
• Asking employees to work off the clock, including not letting them count hours traveling to a job site, hours spent doing paperwork, or hours spent in training.
• Claiming that because a worker is a salaried employee, they are not entitled to overtime pay.

These are just some of the ways that oilfield companies might violate the Fair Labor Standards Act. If you worked overtime on the oilfield and weren’t paid time-and-a-half for any hours you worked over 40 hours a week, you might be entitled to fight for back pay, damages, and attorneys’ fees. Contact the oilfield employee overtime lawyers in Lafayette, Louisiana at Miller & Hilgendorf today to learn more and to fight for your rights.

Let Our Unpaid Overtime for Oilfield Workers’ Attorneys Help You 

The unpaid overtime for oilfield employee lawyers in Lafayette, Louisiana at Miller & Hilgendorf are here to help you if you were not paid overtime and worked long hours on the oilfield. The oil industry is big business. Workers deserve to be compensated for their work. Contact Miller & Hilgendorf, a Lafayette, Louisiana unpaid overtime lawyer today. We are here to help you.