September 21, 2008
Why Are So Many LIRR Retirees on Disability?
The NY Time has a huge, front page article on the curious "disability epidemic among" Long Island Rail Road retirees. In a nutshell, the article points out how many LIRR employees apply for disability after retiring...and they end up getting those federal payments. Back in 2004, 97% of employees who retired after the age of 50, applied for and received disability.
The article starts off at the Sunken Meadow golf course, citing how dozens of retired LIRR employees are enjoying the links: "These golfers are considered disabled. At an age when most people still work, they get a pension and tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability payments — a sum roughly equal to the base salary of their old jobs." And these are workers from train operations (conductors, engineers, track workers) and white collar positions (deputy general counsel, claims manager) applying for disability, according to the Times.
The article also points out how employees' early retirement ends up costing the MTA, because of "overtime, training of replacements and early pension payments." (All while the MTA is facing serious budget issues.) Also interesting: How union contracts have various rules that allow some workers to earn many times their usual daily wage--one employee whose base salary is usually around $50,000 earned over $250,000 in 2006, and the Times has an interactive graphic illustrating how he earned the equivalent of four days pay in one.
The article is very extensive and the TImes' findings are so alarming that the LIRR even sent a letter to the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, the organization that approves disability. And to put things into perspective within the MTA, here's a good passage that compares the LIRR with the MTA's other commuter railroad, Metro-North.
Their work forces are of similar size and composition. Employees perform roughly the same tasks: operating trains, punching tickets and maintaining tracks.There are also many stunned quotes. MTA CFO Gary Dellaverson wondered, “How is it that somebody is occupationally disabled the day after he retires when he wasn’t occupationally disabled the day before he retired?” and a Capitol Hill "expert on railroads," Glenn Scammel, said, “Short of the gulag, I can’t imagine any work force that would have a so-to-speak 90 percent disability attrition rate. That defies both logic and experience."And yet in one area — debilitating illness and injury — the difference is so vast as to almost defy medical explanation.
From 2001 through 2007, Metro-North had 32 cases, compared with 753 at the L.I.R.R. In one year, Metro-North had just 2 cases. The L.I.R.R. had 118.
For certain diseases of the musculoskeletal system, like a herniated disc, Metro-North had 49 cases. The L.I.R.R. had 850.
Photograph by ranjit on Flickr
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I'll take a wild shot in the dark here and guess that some of them are scamming the system.
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On the same weekend as the $700bill bailout, we get this story about bloat and abuse in the MTA. I mean, good job NYT, but jesus...
Hope somebody out there can actually fix this, maybe even get some of that money back. Heads should roll in MTA management - as much as you can blame the union, it sounds like nobody in management was even aware of it.
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anytime the mta or a city agency complains about a budget shortfall...they should remember this..its ALWAYS BS...they can make look like whatever they want by wasting money six days to sunday..how any has love for the city despite all its corruption is beyond me.
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This is EXACTLY the type of story I've been wanting to see since the MTA announced its budget shortfalls. Bravo to The New York Times for this investigative journalism! All of us who take mass transit and who live in the New York metropolitan area should (a) demand more stories like this from our media and (b) insist that the MTA, the LIRR and the transportation unions seriously examine its pension structure. After a story like this, the MTA, the LIRR and transportation unions should seriously think twice before asking the good people of New York to pay higher fares or our politicians in NYC and Albany to contribute more taxpayer dollars.
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Next should be a story on NYPD retirees on disability.
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Abolish the damn union. How can anybody find it defensible when "union contracts have various rules that allow some workers to earn many times their usual daily wage"? Yeah, these union members desperately need the protection of organized labor. That's nothing but bull. The MTA needs to nail these cheaters, charge them with fraud and threaten them with prison terms if they don't repay the money they took, plus interest and penalties. The riders shouldn't have to pay higher fares so these crooks can have cushy lives. I hope people remember this the next time the TWU starts making noises about a strike to get wage increases. But I doubt they will.
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Heads should roll in MTA management - as much as you can blame the union, it sounds like nobody in management was even aware of it.
Why should they be aware of it? The MTA does not approve disability payments. That's all up to the Railroad Retirement Board, a federal agency. There's no reason the MTA is even told and the RRB rubber-stamps almost every claim. The MTA can't seem to win. If they fight the TWU, people scream that they're anti-union. If they give the TWU anything, people scream that they should be more aggressive negotiators. If the MTA stands firm against a strike threat, people scream that they don't care about the riders. I'm not saying the MTA is blameless, but the blame is by far on the stinking union. If you can't tell, I hate unions with a passion. They're outdated, early 20th century institutions based on the premise that the free market can't provide working conditions and that other people should not be allowed to take a job that "rightfully belongs" to you and only you at lower pay if they so desire.
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The Times should do more stories like this instead of sending a plane load of reporters to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin's daughter.
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In the case of how the guy whose $50,000 salary mushroomed to $250,000, it was no secret, it has been done for years. I think might have been in the Daily News or Post some years ago. Everybody that was complicit in this fraud should be exposed and punished. They abused the system and stole from the riders, The stationmasters, the supervisors, the union et al. To knowingly let a guy sleep in the station to pad his income is unconscionable. The people who receive (probably tax free) disability income when the take early retirement should make restitution. If members of the MTA hierarchy were aware of it, they too should be accountable, ditto the union officials.
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unions
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This is what happens when you don't have a national healthcare system. Private and public employers get stuck with these bills and fraudulent claims while their competitors abroad have no such burdens. Add unions to the mix with their contracts laden with clauses that prevent you from trimming payrolls and eliminating positions that aren't needed, plus guaranteeing these healthcare claims and is it any wonder the MTA is broke, GM is begging Congress for $25 billion, and stories like this come out. We the people are paying for these garbages anyway so why don't we pay for ourselves while we're at it?
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What? Unions? No. They couldnt possibly be the problem. 77K to drive an MTA bus is reasonable.
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Finally, the New York Times conducts investigative journalism! A new day has arrived!
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@Spiritof76
This would not be the week to put out an anti union rant based on the "free market" not being able to ..whatever you said
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Are you saying that if only Lehman had been unionized, it would have prevented the market meltdown?
Paterson has announced AG Cuomo will be investigating this. Good. I think criminal charges are in order. Then maybe a little union-busting.
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You right wingers sure use this to bolster other, unrelated arguments...
Ides_of_march: please show us your proof that the NYT sent a plane full of reporters to report on Palin's daughter. It's a silly statement but it comes across like you're serious.
Nannystate: these ex-employees scamming the LIRR would do this whether there was nationalized healthcare or not.
Thanks to the NYT for great investigative journalism.
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What!!!!!!! Unions are scrwing us? No way this is news to me. Renamp the whole system and dump those lazy G.E.D grads.