Chevron pays $1.5 million to settle overtime suit

The U.S. Department of Labor’s regional division announced in San Francisco Thursday that three Chevron Corp. subsidiaries have paid 750 oil and gas industry workers $1.5 million to settle allegations of failure to pay overtime.

One of the San Ramon-based energy company’s subsidiaries is Chevron Products Co. of San Ramon. The other two subsidiaries are in Texas.

The overtime pay is for mandatory pre-shift relief meetings at which hourly field workers turn over their duties to the employees who will work the next shift, labor department officials said.

The amount included $750,000 in back overtime pay and another $750,000 in damages.

The Department of Labor’s assistant district director Alberto Raymond said Chevron also agreed to pay at least 15 minutes of overtime for the relief meetings in the future and more if the meetings last more than 15 minutes:

“Chevron came on board to do the right thing. … They did the right thing going forward and they did the right thing in paying back wages and liquidated damages.”

Labor department officials said the investigation of the Chevron subsidiaries is part of a nationwide probe of possible wage violations in the gas and oil industry.

The agency has conducted 1,000 investigations nationally since 2012 and has recovered $41.5 million in back wages for more than 29,000 workers in the industry.

A Chevron spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.