Mail hauler ordered to pay $825,000 in back wages to drivers
The company is barred from government contracts for three years, according to the Department of Labor.
The Trucker News Services
10/22/2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Alan Berman Trucking, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based mail hauling company, has paid $825,000 in back wages to 80 current and former drivers, resolving a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The company and its principals are also barred from government contracts for three years.
“Federal contractors have a fundamental obligation to pay workers all the wages they have earned,” George Friday Jr., regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco, said. “The Labor Department is committed to the strong enforcement of federal labor laws to ensure that workers receive the wages to which they are legally entitled. We are pleased to recover $825,000 in back wages for 80 drivers.”
Alan Berman Trucking had some $10 million in mail hauling contracts with the U.S. Postal Service subject to the Service Contract Act (SCA) during the time period investigated, providing services from postal facilities in the greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas.
Investigators with the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division found violations on eight contracts where the company treated the drivers as independent contractors, requiring that they use their own trucks and assume all costs.
The company paid employees either by the mile or by the trip, failed to record hours worked and failed to pay the fringe benefits required by law.
The driver’s wages fell below the prevailing wage rates required by the SCA because the company failed to reimburse the drivers for the use of their trucks, including fuel costs, maintenance, and wear and tear.
The back wages cover work performed between June 2004 and February 2007. This investigation is the department’s ninth of the company, and violations of federal labor laws were found during seven prior investigations.
This suit named the company, as well as president Alan Berman of Woodland Hills and vice president Osvaldo “Ozzie”Tarditti of Northridge, Calif., as defendants.
Under the SCA, contractors and subcontractors on federal service contracts exceeding $2,500 must pay their service workers no less than the wages and fringe benefits prevailing in the locality.