@JPB,
JPB wrote:
It doesn't seem that there's anything in the big picture of the main act that would benefit the cleanup/control of this situation if D-B was repealed. The devil is in the details, however. What do you think would happen if D-B was repealed that won't happen otherwise, or would happen faster/better with a repeal of the act?
My own experience, again, was the state level equivalent. Compliance was a time consuming hassle extending over a period of several weeks initially, but probably only wasted 8 or 10 hours. Compliance reports had to be provided during the course of
each contract, in detail, by name of each employee. Each employee had to be fit into a standard catagory. We paid bi-weekly. The report required a breakdown on a weekly basis.
On the employee side, operators were fully, and even overpaid according to the charts. Some, but not all roughnecks required periodic pay adjustments. We are talking about less than $20 for any two week period for people making 40,000 - 60,000 per year, including overtime.
Part of the beast involved classifying, as even in an oilfield state, there were no oilfield catagories to work with. State suggestion, if followed would have had everybody working in an underground mining classification, which is better paid because of hazards and working conditions. I got them to move to surface mining. I suspect that oil cleanup work would fit into some sort of hazardous chemical process, rather than general labor. Reasonable, but I don't see anyone working in plastic hazmat suits in hot climate at anything like the general labor rate, anyway.
Keep in mind that oil & gas well servicing has nothing to do with mining, except that something is removed from below ground level.
In other words, my perception is that it is a big time waster for payroll & accounting, with negligible benefits to the employee.
