Whether or not to pay any journey time for workers below the Honest Labor Requirements Act (FLSA) might be sophisticated. Workers who consider they need to be compensated for that point usually problem non-payment. A dispute over journey time with one worker can generally even blossom into a category motion lawsuit involving a lot of staff and former staff. An oilfield employer lately discovered itself battling precisely that form of increasing lawsuit.
Housing, worksites, and journey
Evolution Properly Companies Working, LLC offers quite a lot of oilfield providers to the fracturing business. Some staff are assigned to 14-day rotations whereas working at distant effectively websites. Previous to starting every rotation, staff traveled from their houses to housing supplied by Evolution. After finishing their 14-day rotations, the workers left the employer-provided housing and returned residence.
Throughout these rotations, Evolution incessantly held morning conferences with their staff on-site on the employer-provided housing earlier than the workers left for the worksite. The conferences, which typically lasted 15 to twenty minutes, included discussions with supervisors, temperature checks, and sometimes drug testing.
Every day, staff traveled between the employer-provided housing to distant worksites. On common this commute was a three-hour roundtrip. Workers claimed they carried out some work duties throughout their every day commute.
The FLSA class motion
Evolution staff and former staff are presently pursuing a category motion lawsuit towards the corporate, claiming they need to have been paid for:
- Journey time to and from their houses to the employer-provided housing at first and on the finish of their 14-day rotations;
- The 15 – 20 minutes spent attending every morning assembly; and
- Journey time (three hours roundtrip) spent every day between the employer-provided housing and a distant worksite.
Though it stays to be seen whether or not the workers will probably be profitable, at this level the court docket has conditionally permitted them to maneuver ahead with their class motion lawsuit towards Evolution.
Below the FLSA, whether or not an employer is required to pay an worker for journey time will depend on particular info, reminiscent of:
- Whether or not journey is from residence to work;
- Whether or not journey is to totally different worksites through the day;
- Whether or not journey is to a unique metropolis and returning the identical day;
- Whether or not journey requires an in a single day keep;
- Whether or not journey is throughout common work hours; and
- Whether or not the worker performs work whereas touring.
The Wage and Hour Division’s Truth Sheet #22 offers a useful abstract of when journey time is compensable: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/whdfs22.pdf
Verify your journey compensation practices
Below the FLSA, an employer’s obligation to pay staff for some forms of journey time, however not for others, might be complicated. More and more, plaintiffs’ attorneys are focusing on employers with potential class motion lawsuits aimed toward difficult an organization’s practices. Earlier than that occurs to you, audit your personal journey pay practices. Be sure you are constant on when journey time is paid and that your journey pay practices adjust to the FLSA’s necessities.
Copley et al v. Evolution Properly Companies Working, LLC, Case No. 2:20-CV-1442-CCW (W.D. Pa. 2022)
