The U.S. Department of Labor Wages and Hour Division has found that Plant Engineering Services LLC violated the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The employer incorrectly applied an exemption from the FLSA’s overtime requirements, meant for salaried executive and administrative employees, to hourly employees. To meet the criteria for exemption, employees must be paid a minimum guaranteed salary, and must perform job duties specific to that exemption. The employer also failed to maintain records of the regular and overtime hours employees had worked, violating the recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA. The investigation is part of the agency’s initiative to improve labor law compliance in the oil and gas industry.

Plant Engineering Services will pay $112,884 in back wages and an equal, additional amount in liquidated damages totaling $225,768 to 17 employees, and will comply with the FLSA in the future.

Since 2012, more than 1,100 investigations have recovered more than $40 million nationally as part of the division’s oil and gas initiative. Based in Sugar Land, Texas, Plant Engineering Services provides engineering and project management services to the gas, power generation, mining and manufacturing industries.