Disaster Recovery & Clean-up Worker Overtime Pay Lawyer

disaster recovery overtime pay lawyer

Summary: When hurricanes and other natural disasters strike, recovery and clean-up workers step up and provide indispensable help to ensure communities get back on track. If you are a disaster recovery worker who is not being paid overtime, do not wait to get the legal help you deserve. Contact a lawyer today.

When disaster strikes, communities across the country rely on disaster recovery and clean-up workers to get their cities and neighborhoods back to normal. These individuals tend to put in long hours under extremely stressful and sometimes traumatic or dangerous situations. Employers often take advantage of these exigent circumstances by refusing to pay their employees overtime. Are you in the disaster recovery or clean-up industry? Are you working extensive hours, but you’ve been told you’re not entitled to overtime? Contact a disaster recovery & clean-up worker overtime pay lawyer at our firm to make sure you aren’t being denied the compensation you deserve. Our contingency fee-based structure means you can pursue justice without financial risk—no fees unless we win.

Examples of Disaster Recovery and Clean-up Workers

These are a few examples of the different types of employees who are called upon to assist after a major disaster:

Construction crews
Demolition crews
Restoration, remediation, and cleaning workers
Inspectors
Schedulers
Security guards
Hazardous materials workers
Utility workers, e.g. linemen
Truck drivers and delivery workers

A diverse array of workers such as these may be called upon to do the work needed to get life back on track. They could be on duty or on call for days or even weeks or months at a time after a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other major catastrophe. Long hours and few breaks are common. But the extreme circumstances involved don’t relieve an employer of making sure these workers are compensated for their overtime.

What are My Rights to Overtime?

Most employees who work more than 40 hours in a week have to be paid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. The FLSA is the primary federal law that governs overtime, although state and local laws may provide more generous worker rights which would apply instead. Overtime is sometimes called time and a half because the employee must be paid 1.5 times his or her regular pay rate for each hour over 40 in a work week.

Understanding Overtime Exemptions

After a major storm hits, disaster recovery workers are usually the first to come forward to help with the aftermath. While employers often hold back overtime pay from disaster recovery clean-up employees by claiming they are exempt, the narrow exceptions to overtime pay requirements almost never apply to these workers.

The FLSA determines what employees are considered exempt or nonexempt for the purposes of overtime pay. Exempt employees do not have to be paid overtime when they exceed 40 hours in a workweek, but nonexempt employees do. There are numerous requirements to be exempt from overtime pay.

Exempt workers must be paid a wage that cannot be changed based on the quality or quantity of work performed. These workers must also earn a salary that meets certain minimum thresholds based on the category of their exemption.

Many exempt employees are salaried or are employed in specific professional roles. However, both salaried as well as hourly workers may be entitled to overtime pay. Certain professional roles that can exempt an employee from overtime pay include:

An executive exemption: Involves managing or supervising one or more employees)
A professional exemption: Requires independent discretion/judgement as well as an advanced degree or knowledge
An administrative exemption: Involves non-manual work that helps manage a business

Disaster recovery workers are paid in different ways, including on an hourly, salary, day rate, or piece rate basis. There is no hourly rate that is high enough to exempt a disaster recovery worker from overtime pay because these workers rarely fit into the exemption categories.

An experienced attorney can help if you are a disaster recovery clean-up worker who has been denied overtime pay.

What Are the Different Ways These Workers Are Denied Overtime?

If you are one of the above types of employees or someone else in the disaster recovery and clean-up business, it’s important that you understand the various ways employers frequently deprive their workers of overtime pay. Examples include:

Claiming the Hourly Rate Is High Enough to Exempt the Worker

Your employer may pay you a fairly high hourly rate and then claim that this somehow exempts you from claiming overtime. The company may tell you that since you’re already paid a high enough wage, you aren’t eligible for overtime.

Unless someone is employed doing computer programming, that worker is almost certainly guaranteed overtime regardless of how high the hourly pay rate is. Also, while there are exemptions in the FLSA based on a worker’s profession, there is no exemption for hourly workers performing blue-collar, manual, clerical, and/or administrative work.

Paying the Worker a Day Rate

Disaster workers are sometimes offered exceptionally high day rates, which are designed to extract long hours from them to complete the job. Although day-rate pay is legal, it does not exclude an employee from overtime. The long hours required to manage and recover from the disaster will eventually add up to over 40 in a week. When this occurs, day-rate pay is not full compensation for all hours worked. Overtime must be calculated and paid.

Misclassifying the Employee as an Independent Contractor

Employers frequently misuse the independent contracting label by claiming that actual employees are contractors. This relieves the employer of certain duties, including paying overtime. But merely calling a worker an independent contractor (or having them sign a contract) is insufficient because there are certain legal criteria that must be met. As a general rule, if a disaster relief or clean-up company tells you what to do and how, when, and where to do it, you are more likely an employee, and the company is your employer. That means you are entitled to overtime pay.

Asking the Employee to Waive His or Her Right to Overtime

An employee cannot give up his or her right to overtime, and an agreement to waive overtime is of no legal effect. It doesn’t matter if the employee was made fully aware of his or her right to overtime yet voluntarily chose to give it up by signing an agreement. Even if you’ve signed a document to this effect, you can recover back overtime pay.

Refusing to Pay for “On-Call” Time

Some disasters necessarily involve a great deal of waiting time. A relief or clean-up worker may be assigned to a job site but not have any actual work to do for several hours. Employers often refuse to pay for this time, meaning the hours spent “on call” are not included in the employee’s total weekly hours (which may otherwise exceed 40). However, if you are required to be on the job premises and are not free to simply leave at any time, you must be compensated, and the hours spent waiting must be included in your weekly total.

Calling the Worker a “Volunteer”

Volunteer work is a great way for people with certain skills (e.g., construction workers) to give back to their communities after a disaster. But if you are an employee of a relief or clean-up company, and you are asked by your employer to do “volunteer” work that is essentially the same thing you are normally paid to do, then you must be paid for it. This is especially true if said work benefits your employer. The time spent should also be included in your total weekly hours.

Filing an Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit

Disaster relief companies must keep accurate timekeeping records to ensure employees are paid the required overtime wages. Whether a company pays straight time instead of overtime, misclassifies the disaster recovery worker in an exempt role, or pays a fixed salary or day-rate without regard to the number of hours worked, these are almost always overtime violations that entitle the worker to take legal action.

An unpaid overtime lawsuit can help workers recover compensation for unpaid hours. These lawsuits can also send a strong message to companies that fail to properly pay disaster recovery workers. Overtime disputes often go hand in hand with other types of wage theft, including minimum wage violations and prevailing wage violations.

The nature and extent of the wage theft will be major factors that impact the value of compensation in an unpaid overtime lawsuit filed by a disaster recovery clean-up worker. Compensation can include up to double the unpaid wages for any overtime premiums that were withheld from the worker.

In addition to backpay for overtime, when it can be shown that the employer acted in bad faith, the court may order them to pay liquidated damages equal to the unpaid wage amount. The court may also assess penalties including attorneys’ fees that the employer has to pay.

Enlist the Help of a Disaster Recovery & Clean-Up Worker Overtime Pay Attorney

An experienced disaster recovery & clean-up worker overtime pay lawyer can determine if you were unfairly compensated for the overtime work you performed. A dedicated attorney will work tirelessly to help you get the wages owed in a settlement agreement or court award. Disaster recovery employers who fail to pay their employees in accordance with federal and state law are committing wage theft and should face consequences.