Employers who deny unpaid overtime to oilfield workers often save their strongest attacks for the motion to decertify. In this Peak Pressure Control overtime lawsuit, the court refused to break the collective apart — and then went further, allowing representative evidence at trial. In Snively v. Peak Pressure Control, LLC, No. MO:15-CV-00134-DC (W.D. Tex.), the Siegel Law Group served as lead counsel, protecting the claims of approximately 70 Pressure Control Operators denied overtime pay. The firm has recovered $100M+ for workers nationwide and concentrates in challenging overtime violations in the oil and gas industry.
The case produced two critical rulings. In June 2018, the court denied the defendants' motion to decertify the FLSA collective, finding that the PCOs were similarly situated. The court rejected the employer's argument that individual differences among workers should defeat collective treatment.
In November 2018, Judge David Counts issued a second ruling: representative evidence would be permitted at trial, citing the Supreme Court's decision in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo. The court's reasoning was blunt: "The Court would rather proceed with a potentially difficult collective trial than to decapitate the hydra and watch as the single trial sprouts into 70 potential mini-trials."
Decertification is the employer's last chance to break a collective action apart before trial. When a court denies decertification, it preserves the workers' ability to proceed as a group — avoiding the cost and inefficiency of dozens of separate lawsuits. The additional ruling allowing representative evidence meant workers could present common proof about the employer's pay practices rather than being forced to prove each individual claim from scratch.
The court's "hydra" analogy captured the policy behind collective treatment: the FLSA was designed to allow group litigation precisely because overtime violations tend to be systemic. Forcing 70 individual trials would undermine this purpose.
Approximately 70 PCOs brought claims under the FLSA and state overtime laws. The defendants — Peak Pressure Control and Nine Energy Services — asserted the Motor Carrier Act exemption, the Highly Compensated Employee exemption, and the administrative exemption. Nine Energy had been the subject of 16 prior FLSA lawsuits, a fact relevant to whether the company's overtime violations were willful (which extends the statute of limitations from two to three years).
Jack Siegel served as lead attorney, continuing the firm's record of oilfield overtime litigation. The firm's willingness to take these cases through decertification and into trial preparation is a key differentiator in the overtime practice area.
If you worked as a Pressure Control Operator or in a similar oilfield role and were denied overtime, this case demonstrates that courts will maintain collective treatment even after the employer's most aggressive efforts to break it apart. Workers who opt into FLSA collective actions are protected from decertification when the evidence shows they were subjected to the same pay practices.
When a court denies decertification, it means the collective action will proceed as a group rather than being broken into individual lawsuits. The court has determined that the workers are sufficiently similarly situated to maintain collective treatment through trial.
Representative evidence allows workers to present common proof about the employer's pay practices rather than proving each individual claim separately. This can include testimony from sample workers, company pay policies, and aggregate data about hours worked and wages paid.
After conditional certification, workers opt in during a notice period. The employer then typically moves for decertification, arguing that the workers are not truly similarly situated. If the collective survives decertification, the case proceeds to trial or settlement.
The opt-in period for this specific case may have closed. However, if you worked as a PCO or in a similar oilfield role and were denied overtime by Peak Pressure Control, Nine Energy Services, or another oilfield employer, you may have your own claim. Contact the Siegel Law Group for a free evaluation.
The Motor Carrier Act (MCA) exemption removes FLSA overtime protections for certain workers in the transportation industry whose work affects the safety of operation of motor vehicles in interstate commerce. Oilfield employers sometimes attempt to apply this exemption to field workers, but it has specific requirements that many oilfield workers do not meet.
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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