Coffman Legal’s Ohio FLSA Overtime Attorneys filed a Collective and Class Action Lawsuit against Recon Oilfield Services, Inc. and Triple J Oilfield Services, LLC for failing to compensate their hourly and non-exempt operators, laborers, roustabouts, and potentially other employees (collectively “operators”) fully for all time that they spent working.
On August 31, 2020, the law firm of Coffman Legal, LLC filed a Collective and Class Action Complaint against Defendants Recon Oilfield Services, Inc. (“Recon”) and Triple J Oilfield Services, LLC (“Triple J”) (collectively “Defendants”) on behalf of operators for the alleged failure of Defendants to compensate their operators all overtime wages earned for all overtime work performed in violation of the Fair Labor Standard Act (“FLSA”).
Recon is a corporation that provides blowout preventer (BOP) services and hydrostatic testing, pressure and steam washing, and oilfield roustabouts for oilfield companies in the State of Ohio and elsewhere in the United States. Triple J is a company that provides substantially similar services (among others) and additionally conducts business in Ohio. Defendants are alleged to be owned and operated by the same individual(s).
The Complaint alleges that Defendants require their operators to report to their respective facilities to gather their tools before traveling to the worksite. Operators allegedly remain at the job site until the work is completed, at which time they return to the facility to unload tools and materials. The Complaint alleges, however, that operators are paid based on hours recorded by dispatchers. Because the dispatchers allegedly did not accurately track operators’ time spent working, operators were not fully or properly compensated. The Complaint alleges that this policy of reducing hours worked was intentional so that Defendants could avoid having to pay operators overtime pay to which they were entitled.
The FLSA requires an employer to pay employees for their work. Time spent completing job duties that are integral and indispensable to the principal activities and principal activities themselves performed by employees is compensable work time because employees cannot perform their work without performing these job duties.
The Complaint alleges these job duties were both primary job activities and integral and indispensable to the operators’ primary job activities, and as such, they should have been compensated for the time spent performing this work.
This lawsuit provides an example of how an employer can underpay its employees in violation of the FLSA by not fully paying them all overtime wages earned for all overtime work that they perform. This unpaid time often results in unpaid overtime which adds up over the course of an employee’s employment. The FLSA sets forth the minimum compensation employees must be paid, and non-exempt hourly employees are entitled to receive full and proper compensation under the FLSA, including overtime.
The lawsuit seeks unpaid overtime wages since August 31, 2017, liquidated damages in an amount equal to the unpaid overtime, attorney’s fees, and costs, among other things.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division (Columbus) and is titled McDaniel v. Recon Oilfield Services, Inc. et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-4497.
Additional information about the collective and class action against Defendants may be found by contacting our office by calling 614-949-1181 or emailing mcoffman@mcoffmanlegal.com. If you have any questions about whether you are being properly paid all overtime wages earned for all of the compensable hours you work (including overtime), then contact our office today to speak with our Overtime Lawyers regarding any wage and hour issues.
