Nearly 1,400 Arizona truckers owed back pay and damages

Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

(Arizona Mirror) The U.S. Department of Labor is looking for nearly 1,400 Arizona drivers who either are currently or were employed with an auto parts distributor who earlier this year was ordered to pay $5.6 million in back wages.

Parts Authority Arizona LLC and Arizona Logistics Inc., which was operating as Diligent Delivery Systems, was ordered by a federal court to pay $2.8 million in back wages and $2.8 million in damages to 1,398 employees. Diligent Delivery Systems CEO and owner Larry Browne was also ordered to pay $150,000 in penalties.

The order for the company to pay the $5.6 million was announced earlier this year, but the Department of Labor is now trying to find people who worked with the companies while classified as independent contractors between April 2012 to March 2020 and who may have believed their wages have been denied.

An investigation by the federal agency found that the companies violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to meet minimum wage requirements, paying straight-time rates for all hours worked, not paying the appropriate rate for overtime and failing to keep required timekeeping records.

The company also made employees use personal vehicles to make deliveries and then did not compensate them.

“We want to make sure that Parts Authority Arizona and Arizona Logistics workers receive all the wages and damages owed to them,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Eric Murray said in a press release about the search for those impacted. “Workers may be difficult to locate when they change addresses or phone numbers, and they may not be aware they are owed back pay.”

If you are one of those workers you are urged to call 877-465-4898 from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. CDT.