i work for a oil and gas field company we travel alot and are responsible for keeping a time and bonus per job sheet to be turned in every week monday. Sometimes while on the road or just busy around town it is not always possible to get them in on time or even by the next day. In which case the company wihtholds that weeks pay untill the following week. We are paid 2 weeks behind anyway but they say it's legal to with hold said paid for a pay period (2 weeks) by putting retroactive pay on check. I live pay check to paycheck for the most part and at a bad time that could really hurt. When i confronted my supervisor about it he blew up at me. I was wondering if this is a legal practice and if not if u could point me in the right direction to prove this isn't legal. Being a right to work state i don't want to raise to much of a stink without a leg to stand on, and would appreciate any help u could give

sorry about spelling and crappy short hand and grammer

FYI, this is not a "right to work" issue. You probably mean "at-will employment". Many people confuse the two.

Anyway, realistically speaking, even if it were illegal (and I'm not saying it is, not knowing what actions you can take to make sure your time sheet gets in by the deadline), by the time you filed a claim with the state Dept. of Labor and they get around to it, your next paycheck would have long come and gone.

And, realistically speaking, if you are out in nowheresville, how do they expect your time sheet by a specific day? Or, can you drive to the nearest establishment that has a fax machine, such as a post office, or Kinko's or a store to fax it.

Illegal and unfair are two different things. I don't see anything illegal about your post.

I worked for a trucking company up until about a year ago. Paying drivers, or anyone else that's out on the road, is legitimately a nightmare. I will say this though, two weeks in arrears seems like an awful lot. When you say that you are two weeks in arrears, you mean at all times, they owe you a full two weeks worth of pay, plus whatever you are currently earning, right? I have never been anywhere that pays a weekly payroll that far behind.

Not to defend your company, but at the trucking company I worked for, we simply had to have a cutoff for paperwork to be turned in, and had to stick to it if we were to process the payroll timely and accurately. Think about it like this. Wouldn't you be mad as hell if you didn't receive your check on time, and it was not correct because they were trying to process sheets that came in late?

I can say this, though. If you miss a payroll deadline, and that pay cannot be put on until the following week, you do have 2 weeks notice that your check will be short for that pay period. In the meantime, you can call whatever debtor you have and let them know that your payment will be a week late. Most are willing to work with you if you are willing to pay. Your best long-term strategy is to get a week or two ahead of your bills. That way, if you miss a deadline, it won't hurt so badly.

bears u said u worked for a trucking company for some time, my company is makeing a hard line on doing log book which is fine and right. BUT they wield some obscure law called oil feild exemption like a sheild to make us log any where form 80 to 100 hrs a week most of us refuse to do them or write "forced dispatch" on all our logs in order to protect ourselfves. How liabal are we when saying when not if the DOT comes down hard on the company because i know the first thing they are gonna do is try and pass the buck right.

bears u said u worked for a trucking company for some time, my company is makeing a hard line on doing log book which is fine and right. BUT they wield some obscure law called oil feild exemption like a sheild to make us log any where form 80 to 100 hrs a week most of us refuse to do them or write "forced dispatch" on all our logs in order to protect ourselfves. How liabal are we when saying when not if the DOT comes down hard on the company because i know the first thing they are gonna do is try and pass the buck right.

I wasn't in the oilfield industry, but let me see if I can pose an intelligent answer to your question anyway. First of all, let me say that it is not illegal for a driver to log 70, 80, 90, 100...whatever hours on his logbook. The Hours of Service (HOS) have NEVER regulated how much a driver can WORK. The HOS only regulate how much a driver can drive, and how long a driver can drive after he has worked.

The following is my understanding, and note that I could be mistaken because I worked for a for-hire property carrying motor carrier (53' vans).
1. You cannot drive after the 14th hour after coming on duty. Think of this as your window of opportunity. For instance, you start work at 0400. You cannot drive after 1600; however, you may continue to work, and work until the cows come home, and never get off work for the next 10 years, and it is perfectly legal to do that on your log book. You just can't drive.
2. You cannot drive more than 11 hours within that 14 hours. This is fairly simple to calculate.
3. You cannot DRIVE after you have WORKED 60 hours in the last 7 days, or 70 hours in the last 8 days (whatever your motor carrier uses). Remember, you can work however many hours the company makes you, you simply cannot drive until you have fallen below the 60/70 hours.
4. 24 hours consecutive off-duty time will reset, or erase, or restart your 7/8 workweek. This restart provision is only valid provided you are not in violation when you start the 24 hours. For instance, you drove past the 70th hour. You cannot start the 24 on your logbook until you are out of violation. That will occur whenever hours fall of your logbook's last 8 days.

From my understanding, the "oilfield exception" only has to do with 2 things:
1. The restart provision. Most motor carriers, oil field is one exception, are subject to a 34 hour restart provision instead of 24 hours like you.
2. Waiting time. If you drive CMV that has been specially constructed to service an oil well, then you don't have to log waiting time at a natural gas or oil well site as on duty. DOT says that all time spent in "waiting" is "ON DUTY NOT DRIVING" in the logbook.

To answer the second part of your question:
Who has the liability? There are several different kinds, so let me see if I can expound a bit on each.
This is tricky. If a DOT officer finds you to have a logbook violation, you, the driver are solely responsible for those fines. Chances are when you did your driver qualification orientation that you received a DOT Driver Manual which probably says that you are responsible for the fines of all logbook violations, speeding tickets, and vehicle condition (pre-trip) tickets.
Who has criminal liability? You do. You will serve the prison time if you knowingly and willingly operate a CMV over the HOS regulations, and you kill someone. Your dispatcher serve prison time as well if he knew, or it can be proven that he should have known that you didn't have hours available.
Who has the civil liability? Generally speaking, your company would have to shell out the big bucks if your's and your dispatcher's negligent acts resulted in someone's death. One exception being an Owner/Operator scenario.
What if their out-of-service statistics trigger a DOT compliance review? DOT can usually get more money out of companies than drivers. If DOT came down on your motor carrier, they would probably leave the drivers alone, but that is not a guarantee. If they found that a driver has been absolutely aggregious about their logbook violations, then they would likely go after them too.

I hope all of this helps, and makes some sense. Let me know if you have any other questions.