Summary:
On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP along with Bruckner Burch PLLC filed a collective action against Keane Group Holdings for unpaid wages. Keane, well known to some of the largest oil and gas companies, offers completion services such as hydraulic fracturing, engineered solutions, wireline technologies, coiled tubing, top hole air rig packages, and cementing. This lawsuit seeks to recover overtime pay for plaintiffs and their similarly situated oilfield coworkers. Affected workers include QSHE Coordinators, Wireline Supervisors and other similar salaried workers.
In order to offer all of these services, Keane employs hundreds of oilfield workers throughout the United States. Their oilfield employees are salaried workers and typically work the oil rigs for 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week for weeks at a time, all while in some of the harshest working conditions. In order to avoid paying QHSE Coordinators, Wireline Supervisors, and other similar salaried workers overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 per workweek, Keane allegedly misclassified them as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Despite this classification, Plaintiffs and similarly situated salaried workers have non-exempt primary duties. In this regard, QHSE Coordinators, the first level of employees in Keane’s safety services, have primary duties that involve assisting rigging up and rigging down oilfield equipment, hauling iron, hauling trailers, setting up chains at a job site, picking up supplies, cleaning up the job site, mixing Gatorade and refilling water, checking shower trailers, and completing routine client/company checklists. Similarly, Wireline Supervisors also have non-exempt primary duties that involve operating the wireline truck’s winch, lowering tools down the well, setting wireline plugs, and completing route client/company checklists. Due to the extent of manual labor required as well as basic primary duties involved in these job titles, the lawsuit alleges that these positions should not be exempt from receiving overtime pay under the FLSA.
This collective action will attempt to include all similarly situated current and former salaried workers who choose to opt-in to this action. This lawsuit seeks to remedy violations of the wage-and-hour provisions of the FLSA by Keane that has deprived its oilfield workers of their lawfully earned wages. If you are a current or former worker of Keane Group Holdings and are unsure about your pay structure, please give one of the employment attorneys of Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP a call for a free phone consultation. You will be able to address your concerns with one of our experienced attorneys and see if you may have a wage claim. You can reach us at (212) 300-0375 or visit our website fslawfirm.com for more information. You can also view the complaint by clicking here.