Claims adjusters working for BP and Worley Catastrophe Response in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have filed a lawsuit claiming that as day rate workers they are owed overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The adjusters claim that they were paid a day rate for working a 12 hour day.
Day Rate Pay Scheme
Numerous lawsuits have been filed attacking employers’ use of a day-rate method of paying their employees, including several in the oil and gas industry on behalf of a variety of drilling services company workers such as;
- Pipeline Inspectors
- Top Drive Technicians
- Service Supervisors
- Field Coordinators
- Field Engineers
- Water Truck Drivers
While an employer is permitted to pay non-exempt employees on day rate basis, it must still pay such employees overtime compensation pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.
In other cases, courts have determined that companies did not have a valid day-rate plan, and that their failure to pay their day rate workers overtime compensation pay for time worked beyond 40 hours per week violated wage and hour laws, when employees’ wages were reduced when they worked less than a full day and where they failed to pay workers for two fifteen-minute breaks per day. The day-rate plan was not valid because they reduced employees’ pay for hours they did not work and the company was held liable for the amounts deducted from their employees’ break periods.
Misclassifying Employees
In still other cases, insurance adjusters have claimed that they were misclassified as administrative employees, and thus treated as exempt from overtime pay laws. These cases often turn on whether the adjusters exercise “discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance,” as required by the Department of Labor definition of an administrative employee.
The lead plaintiff in the BP lawsuit claims that there are over 1,000 adjusters in the potential class and says he complained to management about not being paid overtime but they refused to pay him.
Do You Have a Case?
If you are a day rate worker and believe you may have a claim or would like to get more information, please call us at 1-866-559-0400, email us at mlore@overtime-flsa.com or submit your information using our convenient Case Evaluation form for a FREE and CONFIDENTIAL review of your circumstances.
