Kern County trucking company delays paying their workers
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Monday morning, several truckers gathered at their company’s headquarters demanding they get paid for the work they’ve been doing.
The trucking company, freon logistics is under investigation after many of their employees say they were owed hundreds of dollars.
Many are saying their paychecks bounced leading to frozen bank accounts.
One driver said he had to spend $450 of his own money to pay for a tire for the truck to get home from Utah.
A handful of the drivers were even left stranded on highways because their gas cards were declined.
“I got very shocked like what's going on and I try to call but no one is picking up the call," said Revindre Singh.
An ex-trucker of the company I spoke with earlier had the same issue claiming no one answered his calls when he needed help.
Freon’s safety manager Bill Prough said the company intends to pay their workers.
“Our company has had some financial problems they are getting our money and this is the time of the season when no one wants to pay you. They want to work on our money so consequently our company is behind. Some of our drivers aren’t getting paid you know," said Prough, "It's not that they're not gonna get paid, they will get paid.”
Prough claims this issue happens every few years, yet I reached out to the union, who claims this has never happened before.
“The income goes down and the cost goes up and it just people don’t understand, the drivers don’t understand," said Prough.
According to the Eastern District of California U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Freon filed for bankruptcy on November 8th and has no prior cases filed within the past eight years.
Singh said he’s had five years of trucking experience and has never dealt with anything like this.
The ex-driver claims not too long ago Freon lost its contract with the truck providers and the company had to make do with only a few trucks for over 25 employees.
While the workers gathered at the headquarters, investigators from the Department of Transportation arrived and also said the company was not responding to them.
