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How About Driving For Less Than Minimum Wage?

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It isn’t enough that truckers are faced with stiff regulations and high diesel prices, how about working for less than minimum wage?  That’s what 31 drivers for R.L. Box Inc., of Winfield, Alabama, earned.

By Stan Diel — The Birmingham News

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Thirty-one truck drivers working for a Winfield-based transportation company hauling mail were awarded $62,836 in back wages and benefits following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, the government announced today.

R.L. Box Inc. was found to have violated wage and benefit requirements the Department of Labor places on government contractors, the government said in a prepared statement. The company has a contract with the U.S. Postal Service to transport bulk mail in Alabama and Mississippi.

Rather than provide required benefits, the company “elected to pay for those benefits as part of employees’ hourly rates,” the Department of Labor said.

The government recovered $17,064 in fringe benefits and $45,772 in unpaid wages. The government found the company failed to pay the “prevailing wage” required by the contract, didn’t count all hours its drivers worked and did not pass Postal Service increases in hourly rates along to drivers.

Federal law requires that contractors and subcontractors performing services on federal contracts greater than $2,500 pay at least the local prevailing wage, or pay rates equal to a previous contractor’s collective bargaining agreement. Contract employers also are required to keep accurate records of employees’ hours, pay and working conditions.

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