Cemex Sued For Driver OT Pay

Cemex Inc. is being sued by the federal government for allegedly failing to properly pay more than $5 million in overtime back wages to some 2,000 truck drivers in eight states, including Florida.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed the suit against Cemex following an investigation covering the three-year period from September 2005 to September 2008, according to a press release from the department.

The investigation found the company failed to pay overtime wages on piece rate and incentive bonus pay to workers in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $6.55 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 in a work week.

Of the 2,000 employees affected, 800 were in Florida, a labor department spokesman said.

The spokesman could not say whether any employees of Cemex's Hernando County operations were involved in the suit. Cemex sells concrete and cement products throughout the world and has two cement plants north of Brooksville.

The company didn't break the law, Cemex spokeswoman Jennifer Borgen said in a statement.

Cemex had been working with the Department of Labor regarding "some disputed issues related to the pay by load program that the company had in place prior to 2007," Borgen said.

"Although the company has not admitted liability, we thought we had reached an agreement with the DOL," Borgen said. "We are disappointed that the DOL has thrown out the agreement and decided to go this avenue."