An anonymous donor has given dozens of former employees of a defunct Bakken services company thousands of dollars to help make up for missing wages.
According to the Minot Daily News, an anonymous donor with ties to the North Dakota pipeline sector donated thousands of dollars to dozens of unemployed oil field workers.
The donor gave 43 former employees of WCE Oil Field Services gifts ranging between $3,000 to $20,000.
Fargo-based WCE Oil Field Services focused on pipeline projects in the Bakken shale play and closed down in May 2015.
Former employees at the company told the Minot Daily News in August 2015 that about 100 WCE employees were not paid for their final two to three weeks at the firm.
The North Dakota Department of Labor told the paper this week that 43 former employees at WCE are owed about $750,000 in unpaid wages, penalties and interest.
Although the WCE employees were not union members, North Dakota labor organizations helped solicit donations from the state’s pipeline sector.
The donations will be distributed to former WCE employees that have had their wage claims certified by the North Dakota Department of Labor, the Minot Daily News said.
