Judge Bars Trucker From U.S. Contracts

A Santa Ana trucking company that depends heavily on government contracts for business has been cited for labor law violations and barred from obtaining new federal work for three years, labor officials said Thursday.

Golden State Carriers was cited by federal labor officials for underpaying workers and failing to provide benefits, such as paid vacations and health insurance, required under federal contract regulations.

An administrative law judge barred the company from receiving new federal contracts until May 2002 and ordered three executives to pay 15 employees a total of $100,000 in back wages.

The company has been cited six times in the last decade for labor violations.

“Golden State Carriers has indicated to us that their only business is government contract work,” said Tino Serrano, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor. “That’s their mainstay, and they’re going to be out of that business for at least two years.”

The company has a contract with the U.S. Postal Service that runs through June 2000 and is unaffected by the ruling.

Golden State Carriers drivers carry bulk mail to postal facilities throughout the Southland. Company executives could not be reached for comment.

The executives who were ordered to pay back wages to employees were co-owner and vice president Jose Jimenez; secretary-treasurer Eloise Jimenez, his wife; and President Robert Jimenez, their son.

Labor officials said the company paid drivers about $15 an hour as required by the contract, but routinely paid them for fewer hours than they actually worked.

Golden State Carriers also was barred from federal jobs for three years in the mid-1990s because of labor violations, and it has paid more than $200,000 in back wages since its first violation in 1989.