Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has added four companies and an additional $1.6 million in back wages for more than 2,500 employees as part of its effort to improve Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compliance in the oil and gas industry, according to the DOL.
• The DOL said in a statement that the investigations illustrate a pattern of industry employers failing to pay workers legally required overtime and failing to pay an overtime premium regardless of how many hours they work.
• They also failed to include bonus payments workers have received as part of their regular rates of pay when calculating how much overtime is due.

Dive Insight

Betty Campbell, regional administrator for the Labor Department's wage and hour division in the Southwest, says the DOL continues to find "unacceptably high" numbers of violations in the oil and gas industry. She adds that employers who violate the law in their pay practices harm workers, their families and law-abiding industry employers.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the staggering drop in oil prices has put a serious dent in oil and gas industry hiring and, as a result, many laid-off workers are looking back at how they were treated and "questioning whether they were paid properly."

For HR leaders within oil and gas, the DOL offers training and education to promote compliance and awareness of FLSA requirements. However, while it encourages industry leaders to serve as models for industry-wide compliance, the wage and hour division is also informing workers and community groups about their rights as workers, the division’s services and its availability to review and investigate worker complaints regarding violations.