Wage-And-Hour Litigation Hits The Oilfields

Plaintiff wage-and-hour attorneys, as well as the Department of Labor, are actively scrutinizing the oil and gas extraction industry, looking for workers who may have been misclassified as contract workers, according to a post by Fish & Richardson attorneys Stephen Fox and Kimberly St. Clair. “There are few employer wage/hour practices that trigger stricter scrutiny by the DOL than calling workers, independent contractors,” they write. They explain the DOL’s “economic realities test,” which it uses to determine whether misclassification has occurred, and they list three basic employment practices that will reduce the risk of an adverse finding.