I am a contractor for an oilfield company whom contracts is to production companies. With the recent drop in oil prices as everyone is aware of, our company asked all contractors to drop our rates. They sent out an email to all contractors asking us to send in new prices. Of course, if you wanted to continue working you had to drop your rates. However, the company never dropped their rates to the production companies. So it went something like this. The company would charge 40$ an hour for 24 hrs a day for my service and in turn pay me 32$ an hour for 24 hours a day, adding up to 168 hours a week for most weeks in a year. Most hands then sent in new rates and I dropped mine to 27$ an hour and the company who I sub-contract through did not drop the rates they charge for me. I did not sign an affidavit or anything saying I would drop my pay, I simply sent an email saying what I would drop to. When they asked for new rates, they changed our pay from the previous days we had already worked for that pay period. I was told just today that 65 contractors were on the court papers for the class action suit, seeking 25 million dollars to be spread amongst the contractors from January 1 2014 - present. It would work out to be around 80,000$ - 100,000$ per contractor. My questions are, do I have to be part of the suit to receive payment? If I do have to be involved with the suit would it affect my job? Since I am still currently working, I can't afford to possibly stop receiving calls for work in hopes that a suit would pay out. Also, does what I explain seem legitimate for a class action suit.
Thank you!
Thank you!
