The PIOGA Press
Recently, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it has helped more than 5,300 oil and gas workers recover nearly $4.5 million in back wages for unpaid overtime and other wage violations as a result of an “ongoing multiyear enforcement initiative” conducted by the DOL’s Wilkes-Barre and Pittsburgh Wage and Hour Division offices which found significant violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The DOL found that the majority of the FLSA violations were due to improper payment of overtime. In many cases, employee’s production bonuses were not included in their “regular rate” of pay. In other cases, employers failed to pay overtime to employees that were paid day rates. The DOL attributed the wage violations in part to the structure of the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. According to the DOL, job sites “that used to be run by a single company can now have dozens of smaller contractors performing work, which can create downward economic pressure on lower level subcontractors,” which can lead to noncompliance with wage and hour laws and regulations.