Halliburton truckers reach settlement in wage ‘shaving’ lawsuit

Halliburton Energy Services and a class of truckers have a reached a settlement agreement in a wage lawsuit in a federal court in California, according to court documents.

On Oct. 3, attorneys representing Halliburton, Luis Guerrero and other Halliburton truckers filed a notice to the court that a settlement has been reached. The terms of the settlement are not known as the agreement was done outside the courtroom.

The settlement comes three years after Guerrero filed the lawsuit against Halliburton. According to the lawsuit, Halliburton failed to pay truckers for all hours worked under California law. Plaintiffs claim they were not paid for work done before and after scheduled shifts.

Common in similar wage suits in California, Halliburton drivers also allege they were clocked out for 30-minute meal periods. However, drivers usually worked through their meal periods. Attorneys claim that Halliburton “shaved” or “stole” earned wages during meal breaks.

Even when drivers indicated that a meal period was worked, wages were deducted. According to the lawsuit, Halliburton had “an auto-meal deduct practice.” An automated payroll system deducts those wages by default. The lawsuit claims that no reasonable effort was made to manually edit hours worked as indicated by drivers. Halliburton is accused of presuming that actual reported hours had not been accurately reported, a practice known as “dinging,” “shaving” or “scrubbing.”

Since truckers for Halliburton worked through the 30-minute meal break, they typically worked more than 40 hours a week. However, since those 30 minutes were not accounted for, the lawsuit claims drivers lost out on overtime wages.

Furthermore, Guerrero claims that he worked far beyond the scheduled eight-hour shifts on certain days. On at least one occasion, Guerrero worked from 3 a.m. to 7 p.m. He accuses Halliburton of assigning more work than could be completed within eight hours.

Former drivers also accuse the company of not paying all wages due after terminating their employment.

After several years of litigation, both parties came to a settlement agreement. According to the notice of settlement, both parties requested that the case be dismissed as a result. On Oct. 16, the case was formally dismissed.

Halliburton declined to comment. Attorneys for the plaintiffs could not be reached.