McLendon v. Schlumberger Tech. Corp.
McLendon v. Schlumberger Tech. Corp.
Opinion of the Court
Sidney McLendon brings this action against his former employer, Schlumberger Technology Corporation, for failure to pay overtime wages in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act,
I.
Schlumberger is an oilfield services company. It operates in locations throughout the United States, but McLendon primarily worked out of the Conway, Arkansas location. He became a Tubing Conveyed Perforating Specialist ("TCP" specialist) in February 2011. Perforating creates holes in the casing-sometimes made from concrete-of an oil or natural gas wellbore. These holes create a connection between the wellbore and the reservoir, which is a *939part of the production process. A perforating gun, which contains explosive charges, is used to create the holes. A drill pipe is used to send the gun down into the wellbore and the charges are detonated according to where holes are required.
Schlumberger and McLendon give different descriptions of McLendon's duties and responsibilities as a TCP specialist. Schlumberger says that McLendon was responsible for consulting with the client to determine what equipment was most suitable and that he had the discretion to implement that determination and make changes to it. According to Schlumberger, McLendon was responsible for the overall safety of the operation. He supervised a crew, enforced safety rules, and led safety meetings.
Conversely, McLendon says he did not consult with the client or make decisions about what the job would require. Neither did he supervise the crew or lead safety meetings. McLendon says that a TCP Specialist elsewhere may have those responsibilities but that he worked with smaller-scale operations in Arkansas and was never required to supervise a crew. Instead, he was merely responsible for the equipment he transported from the shop. He built perforating guns in the shop, loaded the guns into his truck, transported the guns to the site, assembled the guns by attaching the firing heads, and then watched from his truck as the guns were run down into the well. Once the guns were in place, McLendon made sure the charges detonated. Then, after the guns were brought back up out of the well, McLendon disassembled and cleaned them.
McLendon's annual salary in 2011 was $53,000. By the time Schlumberger terminated McLendon's employment in 2015, his annual salary was $72,000. In addition to his salary, McLendon earned and received non-discretionary bonuses for each completed job. Schlumberger determined the amount of the bonus by a pre-determined percentage of the net amount of the client's payment. With the non-discretionary bonuses, McLendon's total income exceeded $100,000 in the years 2012, 2013, and 2014. McLendon's total income also would have exceeded $100,000 in the year 2015 had he not been terminated in November.
II.
A court should grant summary judgment if the evidence demonstrates that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). The moving party bears the initial burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine dispute for trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett ,
III.
The FLSA requires covered employers to pay additional wages to non-exempt employees who work in excess of forty hours per week.
The highly-compensated employee exemption provides that an employee with a total annual compensation of at least $100,000
An employee's primary duty is "the principal, main, major or most important duty that the employee performs."
A federal court sitting in Texas recently pointed out that workers in the oil and gas industry are difficult to classify because neither Congress nor the Fifth Circuit has determined whether oil field workers are manual laborers. Galvan v. FTS Int'l Servs., LLC , 7:16CV147-LG-DC,
Schlumberger mainly relies on the deposition and affidavit of its human resources manager, Preston Fraser Ziola, the TCP Specialist job description, and the TCP field operations manual to show that there is no dispute that McLendon's primary duty was non-manual work. Documents # 25-3, # 25-4, and # 25-5. Ziola stated in his affidavit:
5. As a TCP Specialist in the Conway area, Plaintiff's primary duties involved supervision over the operations of using the drill pipe (sometimes referred to as the "drill string") to convey the perforating guns to the required depth in the wells ... Plaintiff also supervised the use of mechanical firing heads, which were activated by hydraulic pressure applied to the well once the drill string was at total depth.
* * *
7. The TCP Field Operations Manual outlines the importance of the TCP Specialist role in supervising and controlling the overall TCP operation and ensuring its safety.
Document # 25-4 at 2. Ziola said in his deposition that once McLendon arrived at the job site with the perforating guns, he turned the guns over to the rig crew and the rig crew did the manual work required for rigging up. Document # 25-5 at 13. Ziola explained: "His job-his essential task at the rig site is-is overseeing the operation and ensuring that the-the safety of the regular crew, communicating with the company man to make sure that the operation is being execute[d] properly."
McLendon says that Ziola, the TCP Specialist job description, and the TCP field operations manual do not accurately describe the duties he actually performed. See Document # 29. According to McLendon, Schlumberger cannot show "plainly and unmistakably" that he fits within the highly-compensated employee exemption by relying exclusively on a written job description, manual, and the testimony of a human resources manager who never observed McLendon at work. See Spinden v. GS Roofing Prods. Co., Inc. ,
McLendon testified that his job duties and responsibilities did not include discussing plans with clients, advising clients about how to proceed, planning the equipment required, directing the selection and preparation of equipment, managing site operations, supervising a field operator crew, calling and leading safety meetings, and maintaining communication with clients to promote Schlumberger's services. Document # 29-1 at 4-11. McLendon explained that the responsibilities and duties listed in the TCP specialist job description do not reflect what a TCP specialist does in Arkansas. Id. at 3. He said that TCP specialists overseas and offshore are more involved in the decision-making process. Id. at 3, 34.
McLendon's duties began in the workshop. Id. at 12. Once he received the well procedure via e-mail from the company engineer, he built the guns. Id. at 12, 30-33, 37. McLendon explained that he always used the same type of equipment and firing system, but could not start building the guns until the company engineer told him the depth of the well and how the guns were to be loaded. Id. at 30. He had no discretion. Id. at 37. He eventually loaded the heavy three-foot long guns and the four-and-a-half-foot long firing heads onto the truck along with two thirty-six-inch pipe wrenches, which took about thirty minutes. Id. at 30. It was McLendon's responsibility to deliver the guns to the well site in a timely manner. Id. at 27. When McLendon arrived on site, he found the well site supervisor and compared the documents each received stating the well procedure, to ensure they both received the same instructions. Id. at 14. Once the well procedure was confirmed, he fastened the firing heads to the perforating guns. Id. at 10. Then, he fastened the guns to the tubing. Id. at 11.
After that, McLendon returned to his truck and watched as the rig crew "torqued up" the fastenings and sent the guns down into the well. Id. This process, his part and the rig crew's part, usually took around an hour. Id. at 22. McLendon testified that he was responsible for the equipment he brought. Id. at 18. He did not shoot the guns, but ensured that they did shoot. Id. at 21-22. To ensure the guns discharged, McLendon says he stood there "holding on to the pipe to see if [he] fe[lt] it go bang, bang, bang." Id. at 22. Then, after the guns were brought back up out of the well, McLendon disassembled and cleaned them. Id. at 19. McLendon testified that his interactions with the client were limited. Id. at 37. Apart from ensuring that they each had the same well procedure, McLendon said: "They tell me what they want for lunch." Id.
*943As stated above, Schlumberger and McLendon describe his primary duties as a TCP Specialist differently. An employee's job description, the job description of a lower paying job with some overlapping duties, and a representative of the employer's reiteration of that description without first-hand knowledge, are insufficient to establish the exempt status of an employee. Rather, "[t]he exempt or nonexempt status of any particular employee must be determined on the basis of whether the employee's salary and duties meet the requirements of the regulations...."
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Schlumberger's motion for summary judgment is DENIED. Document # 25.
IT IS SO ORDERED this 31st day of August, 2017.
The amount changed on December 1, 2016.
McLendon worked offshore for Schlumberger for two years from 1995 through 1997. Document # 29-1 at 35.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Sidney MCLENDON v. SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
- Status
- Published