On February 16, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas granted conditional certification of an FLSA collective action of Pump Hands and Operators in Chacon v. Black Star Energy Services, L.L.C., No. MO:15-CV-00198-RAJ. In this oilfield pump hand overtime lawsuit, the court acted on the parties’ joint stipulation. It also approved notice by mail and email and ordered the notice posted at the company’s shops. Jack Siegel, with co-counsel, represented the workers.
Senior United States District Judge Robert A. Junell signed the Order Granting Conditional Certification of Collective Action on February 16, 2016. That was the same day the parties filed their joint stipulation. The defendants were Black Star Energy Services, L.L.C., formerly known as Man Lift Rentals, L.L.C., and an individual defendant.
The parties stipulated that the group was similarly situated to the plaintiffs for purposes of conditional certification. The court wrote: “Pursuant to the Parties’ Joint Stipulation and the substantial allegations raised in Plaintiffs’ Complaint, conditional certification of the collective action is hereby GRANTED.”
The court then ordered that this definition of the collective be used: “All current and former Pump Hands and/or Operators employed by Black Star Energy Services (formerly known as Man Lift Rentals) and Kevin Blackwood between February 2013, and the present.” It ordered the workers to file a revised notice using that definition within three business days.
Notice terms. Under the order:
The order described the claim in the workers’ own complaint. According to the order, the complaint covered current and former Mixing Plant Employees whose primary duty was to transport, monitor, and operate chemical mixing equipment. It said those workers were paid a salary plus bonus and worked more than 40 hours per week. The proposed notice the parties filed said the workers did not receive overtime pay for hours over 40.
The parties’ stipulation described the workers by their duties — Pump Hands and Operators who set up, operated, and monitored the mixing plant equipment. The court’s order, however, defined the collective by job title: current and former Pump Hands and/or Operators employed between February 2013 and the date of the order.
Shop posting mattered for a field crew, because it gave workers another way to see the notice at work. This was an agreed order, so it was not a contested win and not a finding that the defendants broke the law.
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek unless an exemption applies. As general information, a salary alone does not make a worker exempt, because the white-collar exemptions also require specific duties. For a non-exempt worker, non-discretionary bonuses generally must be included when the overtime rate is figured. Learn more about salaried vs. hourly pay and overtime.
In this 2016 order, the court said most courts within the Fifth Circuit had adopted a two-step approach. The first step, the notice stage, used what the court, quoting Fifth Circuit precedent, called a “fairly lenient standard” for conditional certification. Some federal appeals courts have since changed this approach — the Fifth Circuit in Swales v. KLLM Transport Services (2021) and the Sixth Circuit in Clark v. A&L Homecare & Training Center (2023). Swales now governs federal courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
This page describes a 2016 court order. The time to join that collective was set by the court in that case. If you have worked in a similar role, the Siegel Law Group can evaluate your own claims.
Have you worked as a pump hand, operator, or mixing plant worker in the oilfield? Were you paid a salary plus a bonus, and did you often work more than 40 hours a week without overtime? A lawyer can review how you were paid.
Contact the Siegel Law Group for a free consultation.
Related rulings: Snively v. Peak Pressure, another oilfield overtime case in the Western District of Texas, Rodriguez v. Peak Pressure Control, another oilfield overtime case over salary-plus-bonus pay, and Snively v. Peak Pressure Control (2016), a Western District of Texas order the same month for operators paid a salary plus bonus.
Some do, depending on the job. Earning a salary is not enough on its own to make an oilfield employee exempt, and hands who run and monitor field equipment generally fall outside the white-collar exemptions. A non-exempt pump hand is owed overtime for hours past forty, and any non-discretionary bonus generally must be included in the rate used to calculate it.
Posting gives crews who move often another chance to learn about a case. In Chacon v. Black Star Energy Services, the court required the company to put the notice up at every branch, location, and shop where these workers were employed, in prominent places all employees could reach. The company then had to certify the postings to the court in writing.
The 2016 order defined the collective as current and former Pump Hands and/or Operators employed by Black Star Energy Services, formerly Man Lift Rentals, and an individual defendant between February 2013 and the present, in the order’s words. Joining depended on a sixty-day window that ran from when the company turned over its worker list. A pump hand in a similar job today needs a fresh look at his or her own claim.
Federal overtime claims generally must be filed within two years after each short payday, or within three years when the violation was willful (29 U.S.C. § 255(a)). Once a collective action is under way, a pump hand is generally not treated as having sued until the day his or her written, signed consent is filed with the court (29 U.S.C. § 256(b)), so waiting can cost older weeks of pay. See how overtime claim deadlines work.
The Siegel Law Group is a national overtime and wage law firm devoted entirely to representing workers denied overtime pay. Where many firms include wage cases as a small part of a broader employment practice, the Siegel Law Group has built its entire practice around overtime litigation — and the results reflect that commitment: $100M+ recovered for workers, 50+ class and collective action certifications, and 100+ federal lawsuits filed in 27+ federal courts nationwide. Founding attorney Jack Siegel is a Bloomberg BNA contributing author on wage and hour law.
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