Oil, gas and drilling industry are very common. Many companies pay workers under a ‘day rate’ method, which means employees are paid a flat amount for each day work, regardless of how many hours they have worked that day. For more details have a look here: http://oilgassoftware.net/
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Overtime pay laws in oil and gas industry
1. OVERTIME PAY LAWS IN OILAND GAS INDUSTRY
Oil, gas and drilling companies have a great deal of work and workers are in short supply. That
automatically means that the workers have to work long hours, sometimes reaching 100 or more
hours in a single week due to mandatory overtime.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that nonexempt employees, including those working
in oilfields jobs, be paid time and a half for overtime, which is defined as any hours worked over 40
per week. Unfortunately, overtime pay violations in oil, gas and drilling industry are very common.
Many companies pay workers under a ‘day rate’ method, which means employees are paid a flat
amount for each day work, regardless of how many hours they have worked that day.
For those with mud logging jobs (part of an oil field drilling team), it is not uncommon to work
over the norm of 40 hours a week. The national overtime pay laws FLSA prohibits employer in the
energy industry from withholding overtime pay from employees if they are classified as non
exempt. Oil field workers may be non exempt, and entitled to overtime compensation, regardless of
whether they are paid hourly, on a day rate or a salary. Proper classification is determined by a
worker’s job duties and responsibilities and the manner in which they are paid.
2. While employers are legally obligated to keep accurate and complete time record for all non exempt
employees, in order to protect you against overtime pay violations. It is a good idea to keep track of
hours worked and maintains record of payroll, and then only you are covered if an issue ever arises
where you believe you are not getting the overtime compensation rightfully owed to you. Overtime
pay laws can be complicated and often vary from state to state, so it is also important to make
yourself aware as to what is and is not legal when it comes to getting paid for overtime. For any
issue an overtime claim lawyer can be contacted.
The FSLA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay and record keeping. The Department of Labor
(DOL) released the “Fair play” rules that went into effect on August 23, 2004, for more information
click here.
Under the new fair play rules, workers earnings less than 23,660 dollar per year are guaranteed
overtime protection. Under the new overtime rules, certain workers are automatically eligible for
overtime pay regardless of how much they earn. The following class of workers is eligible for
overtime, blue collar worker or manual laborers who perform work involving repetitive operations
with their hands, physical skill and energy, police officers, fire fighters and others.