Texas Unpaid Oilfield Worker Attorney
Texas Oilfield Workers Unpaid Overtime
Generally, Texas oilfield workers are legally entitled to be paid overtime wages for all hours over 40 worked in a workweek.
Individuals employed on oilfields work long hours, but employers often deny their workers overtime pay.
There is a common misconception that because a worker receives a salary or has the classification of an independent contractor, they are not entitled to overtime pay. The fact is, many 1099 employees and other workers should receive overtime pay, but don’t.
Employers in the oil and gas industry – whether unwittingly or knowingly – often misclassify workers as exempt employees when they are not.
If your employer denies you overtime pay, Texas unpaid oilfield worker attorney, David Langenfeld, can help you receive the money you deserve.
Texas Oilfield Workers Who Get Cheated
Texas oilfield workers performing a variety of jobs are often entitled to overtime pay. Those who are commonly cheated out of the overtime pay they are owed include:
- Drillers
- Engineers
- Inspectors
- Linemen
- Mechanics
- Pumpers
- Roughnecks
- Surveyors
- Technicians
- Welders
- Tool Pushers
Possible Oilfield Employer Violations
Employers often use illegal means to deny their Texas oilfield workers the additional overtime pay they earned.
Common violations include:
- Denying overtime to salaried employees. Receiving a salary, rather than hourly wage, does not automatically exempt you from overtime pay.
- Paying flat rates, day rates, or shift rates instead of considering how many hours the employee worked, therefore failing to pay additional time and one-half for overtime.
- Improperly classifying a worker as an independent contractor when they are not. Agreeing to contract work does not necessarily mean you are barred from receiving overtime pay.
- Improperly applying overtime exemptions. The title of “supervisor” or “manager” does not mean you are not entitled to overtime pay.
- Failing to pay for time spent working off the clock, before and after scheduled work shifts. Employers generally must pay workers for travel time from the shop to their first job site, travel time between job sites, meetings (including safety meetings), prep time before jobs, and paperwork done at home.
Workers should know what money they deserve and require employers to compensate their work fully. Texas oilfield workers lawyer, David Langenfeld, is a qualified attorney who will help you find out if your employer is paying you less than you deserve.
explicitly details the terms of commission payments, an employer’s failure to fulfill this obligation may be interpreted as a breach of contract. Even when a written agreement is absent, oral agreements regarding commissions are sometimes legally enforceable.
Texas wage laws, specifically the Texas Payday Law, protect workers who are owed wages.
In some cases, employees may also have claims under federal laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which mandates fair compensation practices.
How To File a Texas Oilfield Workers Unpaid Overtime Claim
Texas oilfield workers who have been illegally cheated out of the overtime pay they deserve can hire a lawyer to fight for them.
Sometimes claims are brought by groups of workers as a class action or collective action. However, workers often bring cases individually seeking to recover only the money they are owed.
If Texas unpaid oilfield worker attorney, David Langenfeld, believes you are entitled to receive unpaid overtime wages, he will represent you against your current or former employer on a contingent fee basis which means you pay no money up front and he gets paid ONLY if he recovers money for you.
No Retaliation for Filing a Texas Oilfield Workers Unpaid Overtime Claim
Texas oilfield workers sometimes allow employers to get away with cheating them out of lawfully owed overtime pay because they are concerned about retaliation.
But workers should understand that federal law makes it illegal to retaliate against an employee or former employee for filing an unpaid overtime claim. Federal courts can order employers who retaliate against employees to pay additional money, including punitive damages to those employees.
What Money Can You Recover from a
Texas Unpaid Oilfield Worker Overtime Claim?
Texas oilfield workers are entitled to recover wages going back at least two years, and very often going back three year and can bring a claim against a current or a former employer.
An employee or a 1099 independent contractor who has been the victim of unlawful overtime wage theft is entitled to receive financial compensation. That compensation may include the total amount of overtime that should have been paid but wasn’t.
Additionally, that amount may be doubled as liquidated damages which is intended to punish the employer for its illegal conduct. Employers may also be forced to pay the worker’s attorney’s fees and court costs. Because Texas oilfield workers are usually fairly high wage earners, the amounts they are owed in unpaid overtime can be tens – or even hundreds – of thousands of dollars.
Texas unpaid oilfield worker attorney, David Langenfeld, fights for employees who have been cheated out of the overtime wages they have earned.
History of Success as a Texas Unpaid Oilfield Worker Attorney
David Langenfeld, an experienced Texas unpaid oilfield worker attorney, has a proven track record of success when it comes to fighting for the rights of Texas oilfield workers who have been the victims of illegal wage theft.
He has sued small employers and major companies in federal court and has forced them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to individuals and groups of workers he has represented. Not only have David’s former clients referred their friends to him, but lawyers he has opposed in court have also referred potential cases to him.
In fact, opposing lawyers have been so impressed with his representation of his clients that they later called him seeking advice on how to handle their own cases.