Posted on 08/05/2013 5:55:44 AM PDT by thackney
It’s amazing how many times Rodney Bean has heard the phrase “but everyone’s doing it” from oil and gas companies, big and small.
“Everyone” hires independent contractors instead of employees. “Everyone” pays a flat day rate instead of a salary or hourly wage.
When these companies get a notice from the U.S. Department of Labor, they call Mr. Bean, an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, and he tells them, in the most respectful way: Yes, you’re right. Everyone is doing it. And they’re doing it wrong.
Mr. Bean is getting more and more calls these days, as the Labor Department’s Marcellus Shale Initiative enters its second year.
The agency began targeting oil and gas firms because the industry has shown a pattern of labor law violations, according to John DuMont, district director for the department’s Pittsburgh office. The firms tend to improperly label their workers as independent contractors, which allows the companies to avoid paying overtime. They also pay employees a day rate without calculating how many hours are worked in a week and without keeping proper records.
So far, the largest judgment from the initiative was issued against Groundwater and Environmental Services Inc., a New Jersey-based company, for violations found in an audit of its Cranberry and Fairmont, W.Va., offices.
The Labor Department audit concluded the environmental firm improperly classified 69 workers, who collected water samples from Marcellus Shale well sites, as professionals exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, even though they required no advanced knowledge to perform their jobs.
The exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay applies to “bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales positions, as well as certain computer employees,” who are typically paid on a salary basis, the department said.
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
Another angle by the left to attack our domestic oil production?
Players play.
Coaches coach.
Regulators regulate.
Even regulators (well some at least) realize they have to “show activity” or they might be declared redundant.
Labor Department = Union Department
Sometimes Regulators shoot to kill.
I suspect they are getting much more. Something about "gettin' 'er done".
And there's another perfect example of a Federal department that needs to circle the bowl. At the most they need one statistician.
(but of course, that would grow to two, then three, and on and on..)
When the marketplace is free, Unions suffer and CANNOT compete.
Right-to-Work States are where the businesses move, after being priced out of the market due to Union Contract extortion...........
When the marketplace is free, Unions suffer and CANNOT compete.
Right-to-Work States are where the businesses move, after being priced out of the market due to Union Contract extortion...........
From my understanding in running an auto repair shop and dealing with piece meal work, as long as the total of the equals minimum wage of the total number of hours they are on the premises, it’s not in violation of the law.
Overtime might also be an issue with DOL.
But the big issue is FICA. The employer is liable to the IRS for 100% of the FICA due on the wages earned. The employer may withhold 1/2 of the FICA from the wages, and pay the other 1/2 out of its own pocket, but the employer owes all of it, and has to pay all of it if it fails to withhold 1/2.
Not if they are 1099 employees, but there’s the rub. Really hard to prove they qualify as 1099ers when the DOL wants a piece of you.
Given how they function and how they protect, can’t temporary/staff/indirect hiring practices be considered a form of a labor union that serves an employer? If so, then RTW would do well to apply to them as well with regards to the provision on “not required as a condition of accepting or continuing work” - to further increase freedom in the marketplace.
That, and those who choose something over other equally available and attractive alternatives are more likely to want to do the given job well.
You do the best job you can, get noticed, and advance.
The TRUE value of ANY employee is their contribution to a businesses success/bottom-line, and only a fool as an employer would ignore that.
Unions (as has become totally obvious now) are in place for an Agenda, protection of lack-luster talent, EXTORTION of premium pay and benefits while not providing premium work, and to stuff the Union coffers for the fat-cats at the top to live lavish lifestyles.
With the advent of money-laundering of Dues to the Demcrat Party in exchange for Favorable Contracts/Subsidies/FORCED Union Labor on Government Contracts' Bidding, AND, worst of all, self-serving Voters that are Taxpayer-employees (government employees who are WRONGLY allowed to Unionize), we now have Taxpayers being fleeced to hand to those they have as "employees", while having no need to have so many or compensate them FAR BEYOND their actual value (if ANY).
No disagreement there, just was asking who would be counted as a union.
The more indirection that ends up between two consenting individuals in a given situation, there’s a good chance that less freedom accompanies it for at least one of those consenting individuals.
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