A federal court in San Antonio, Texas concluded that a Field Coordinator and Service Supervisor for an oil and gas services company was not exempt from overtime pay as a matter of law. \u00a0The employee alleged that he was improperly classified as a salaried employee and was wrongfully denied overtime pay.\u00a0 The worker claimed to have averaged approximately 110 hours per week.\u00a0 The oil and gas services company asserted that the worker was exempt from overtime pay under the executive exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.\u00a0 For the executive exemption to apply and thus not entitle a worker to overtime pay, the worker must be an employee:<\/p>\n
29 C.F.R. \u00a7 541.100(a). The executive exemption is conjunctive, meaning that the employer who claims the exemption must meet all of these\u00a0elements for the exemption to apply.\u00a0 This exemption, like other exemptions under the FLSA, is narrowly construed against the employer seeking to assert it.\u00a0 The San Antonio Court found that the first three elements were satisfied by the employer.\u00a0 However, it found that there was conflicting evidence as to whether the worker\u2019s suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion, or any other change of status of other employees were given particular weight. The Court concluded that \u201cthere is enough evidence to let a jury decide whether the fourth element of the executive exemption is met,\u201d and thus denied the employer\u2019s motion for summary judgment.\u00a0 The case was styled Mohnacky v. FTS Int. Svcs.<\/i>, LLC, Civil Action No. SA-13-CV-246-XR (WDTX, Oct. 2, 2014).\u00a0 According to public case files, approximately one month after the Court issued its ruling, the parties settled their dispute, and the case was dismissed shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
The takeaway from this case is that many oil and gas workers, even those who are paid a salary and told that they are not due overtime because they are exempt, may be entitled to overtime pay. \u00a0This applies to\u00a0positions which purport to be managerial or supervisory in nature (including positions such as Field Coordinator, Service Supervisor, Project Manager, etc.). \u00a0If you have questions about unpaid overtime, visit with an experienced overtime attorney. \u00a0Overtime attorney Josh Borsellino represents workers in the oil and gas industry to get them the overtime pay they deserve.\u00a0 Call 817.908.9861 or complete this contact form<\/a> for a free evaluation of your overtime pay matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A federal court in San Antonio, Texas concluded that a Field Coordinator and Service Supervisor for an oil and gas services company was not exempt from overtime pay as a matter of law. \u00a0The employee alleged that he was improperly classified as a salaried employee and was wrongfully denied overtime pay.\u00a0 The worker claimed to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3886,3895,3896,3897],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfwcounsel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}