October 4, 2025 - A coal miner from Virginia has filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing United Coal Company, Wellmore Coal Company, and Wellmore Energy of illegally withholding overtime pay from workers at mines along the Kentucky-Virginia border.

Plaintiff Travis Hall filed the case this week in U.S. District Court in Abingdon on behalf of himself and other salaried employees. The suit alleges the companies misclassified workers as exempt from overtime by calling them salaried, but then reduced their pay whenever operations were shut down — sometimes due to safety issues or business decisions — even when miners had already worked part of the week.

According to the complaint, that practice meant employees were not truly salaried under federal labor law, making them eligible for overtime pay. Hall and others claim they routinely worked more than 40 hours per week without receiving overtime wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Kentucky Wages and Hours Act, and the Virginia Overtime Wage Act.

The lawsuit cites multiple examples of miners attending mandatory meetings or working part of a week, only to see their paychecks reduced when mines closed. Some workers used vacation time to cover lost pay, while others received significantly smaller checks.

Attorneys for Hall argue the companies’ practices affected many employees and seek back pay, liquidated damages and attorneys’ fees. The complaint also asks the court to certify both a collective action under federal law and a class action under state law.

The companies named in the lawsuit are subsidiaries of United Coal, itself controlled by Ukraine-based parent company Metinvest.

No response from the defendants has yet been filed.