Lawsuit: Corbin company owes workers $74,000

A Corbin construction company failed to pay it’s workers the state’s prevailing wage and owes nearly $74,000 to 19 current or former employees, according to a lawsuit filed in Whitley Circuit Court Aug. 3.
The Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Labor is accusing Hoover Companies of KY, Inc. of violations stemming from work on the Corbin City Hall expansion – a project the company failed to completely finish in 2001.
According to the civil complaint, filed by John Burrell, a member of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet’s Department of Legal Services, a notice of violation was issued to Hoover Companies on Oct. 30, 2003. To date, $73,992.33 investigators say the company owes to 19 employees has not been paid.
Included is a list of employees who are allegedly owed as little as $20 to as much as over $21,000.
Twenty-four-year-old Josh Brock, of Corbin, worked on the City Hall expansion for Hoover Companies and said he only recently became aware of the lawsuit and the alleged violations.
“Back then, I didn’t know anything about it,” Brock said. “I was just out of high school and worked for him a couple of summers … I was young and stupid I guess. I didn’t know anything about it.”
Brock said he made $7.50 an hour while working for Hoover Companies and started off doing mostly landscaping. State law requires companies fulfilling contracts for public agencies to pay a predetermined “prevailing wage” above what Brock was making at the time he worked for the company. Brock said he was never paid a higher amount for work he did on City Hall. According to the lawsuit, he is owed $909.64 in back pay.
Brock said he did various jobs on the City Hall expansions including bricklaying and ductwork. He said his former supervisor, Tony Morales, told him about the lawsuit a couple of months ago.
“If I wasn’t making what I was supposed to be making, then yeah, I want the money,” Brock said. “It’s a good surprise, I guess.”
The Department of Labor is asking that the wages be paid plus 12 percent in post-judgment interest.
Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The company, located in Hartford, CT, executed a payment bond between itself and Hoover Companies on the project.