MTA Workers Make Full-Time Cash For Part-Time Hours

Photo of MTA worker reading a magazine from JR from Brooklyn's flickr

Hundreds of Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers responsible for repairing above-ground subway tracks have been getting paid for eight-hour shifts, even though they actually spend only four hours per day working.

To keep workers safe and prevent them from slowing down rush-hour trains, the MTA only permits outdoor track work between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm — meaning that the agency's 455 outdoor track repair workers only work about four hours per day. But the agency spends about $10 million per year paying out the workers' full-time shifts from 8 am to 4 pm, even though they usually spend about half of their days "reading, chatting or doing other leisure-time pursuits instead of fixing rails and switches," according to the Daily News.

A new report by the MTA's inspector general urges the MTA and the Transport Workers Union Local 100 to find ways to "get more weekend work" for outdoor track repair crews, because the agency doesn't allow crews to work outdoors at night, when most track work is done. But the union says weekend work is unfair: "The answer is not to punish track workers and our families for the MTA's gross mismanagement," said union officer John Samuelsen, who noted that the agency's rule book actually allows workers to hit the tracks as early as 9 am, not 10:30 am. "If the MTA moves to take track workers from our families on both Saturday and Sunday every week, there will be swift intervention from TWU Local 100."

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By Ben Muessig in News on December 2, 2009 5:29 PM

Comments [rss]

silver

Bus drivers get half pay between their morning rush hour shift and their evening rush hour shift, some get PT jobs to fill the hours, others go home to sleep or do house work. Welcome to working for the government, where revenue is infinite and collected by your local SWAT team.

ocularb0b

Ok so let me get this right. Youre all up in arms because working people have jobs that pay them more than the bare minimum dolled out by organizations whose business models are to bleed the majority(the working class). Unions have long served as the Peter Pan in our silly broken system. Who, now, would argue against workin folk making enough money to support their family with some security? really

eyekantspel

"Unions have long served as the Peter Pan in our silly broken system"? Peter Pan only to the union workers, who don't wanna grow up. Who would argue against making taxpayer-supported union workers in our broken MTA system put in an 8 hour day to earn their union-inflated 8 hour pay rate?

dadoc

Wish someone other than our candy-butted politicians would just accept they're gonna serve one term and go all Reagan-PATCO on the union's butts. In this economy, there are millions looking for work, and willing to go the distance to keep a job. TWU, PBA, NFT, can them all and let the laws of economics sort it out. Would solve all the "fiscal Crises" in about 2 seconds.

freddynyc

I guess this would explain the travesty which is the Columbus Circle reconstruction. At the current rate of progress, we should see completion by the end of the next millennium...

mathog

Let's give credit where credit is due. You linked to the two tabloid reports, but WABC was the first news organization to report on this story. They broke the news in an investigative piece last over a year ago. It lead to the inspector generals report, which was issued yesterday.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7148177

youngpro

Unions are legalized mafias, got it? They will actually LAUGH at you for trying to get their workers to go above and beyond their roles.

www.seethroughny.com

Select the right fields for MTA and sort by high to low for salary clumn and see just how many 'track workers' and 'subway conductor' gross over $100k/year.

angry_pickle

Eye-opening link.

eyekantspel

"The answer is not to punish track workers and our families for the MTA's gross mismanagement"...the answer is to punish taxpayers, riders and their families?

Does anyone NOT think that part of the reason the MTA sucks is the TWU? They are all crooks.

Spirit of 76

There isn't a single business in the entire nation that likes unions. Every union is just in it for themselves nowadays. The only thing they want to do is "negotiate" higher pay and more benefits (or else risk a strike) so more people become members so they get more dues. They claim they're just looking out for the workers, even though government agencies like OSHA and NIOSH actually do things like create safety regulations and investigate industrial accidents. Unions don't do anything except sit back, rake in the cash and organize strikes and picket lines when they don't get their way.

ed_Extinct

unions are a sham.

Son of Spam

"If the MTA moves to do anything to upset the atmosphere of smug entitlement created by the obsolete union establishment there will be swift intervention from TWU Local 100."

Fixed.

valeriob

For the LOVE OF GOD...

Please get rid of the TWITTER HOVER OVER POP-UP!!!!!

scrappymcgee

Go f yourself TWU. Your fing over the people who pay your salaries to much. Just wait your days are numbered.

Nyctini11

Anyone surprised by this sort of blatant in your face abuse by the workers, their foremans etc, can't be a NY'er, mow a days corruption is par for the course, why do you think everyone wants to be union? why do you think union workers have that stigma of laziness and better than thou attached to them(yes i know there are a few exceptions, but i stress the word FEW)because it's 100% true. But, that's ok, we'll continue to pay increased fares etc, and pay for this out the butt somehow. Yeah give em weekend work, then they can earn Overtime for doing nothing!!

valeriob

Down with this sort of thing!

FrankMartin

God damn these bankers.

JenChungsBaby

They actually work four hours a day?

ckl

i mean it's a fucking job, they get paid enough, if they don't want to work on weekends they could maybe find a job where working on weekends isn't necessary.

nicemarmot

Can we just bang these two organizations' skulls together repeatedly?

ckl

and from what I've seen on the F they spend they majority of those four hours dicking around anyway.

those fuckers. man.

jza1218

How about forcing them to do other necessary work that's not track-related? Why not use them as extra personnel during that rush hour? Make em pick up garbage...work those closed token booths...provide extra security. They're getting paid already, you might as well get some production out of it rather than giving them time to finish their morning crossword.

I hate the MTA and I hate the TWU...They all can suck a bag of dicks.

ianmac47

Ideally the MTA would get half of them to come in early and work some sort of task related to morning rush hour service and the other half to evening rush hour service, but as has been said, its unlikely the union would allow them to do anything.

One alternative might be to get them all to come in at 6:30 to start their 8 hour shift rather than allowing them a later start, and press them to agree to some sort of compromise.

Spirit of 76

I'm guessing you've never had to deal with a union. Union jobs are very specific. You do your job and only your job. Track workers can't clean because that would be infringing on the responsibilities of the cleaners, whose jobs the union are also protecting. If you even try to do another job, the union will be on you like a ton of bricks.

starrygordon

Unless, of course, you negotiate it into the contract. But why should the MTA do that? It's not their money.

Spirit of 76

Oh, yeah, you make it sound so easy to negotiate with unions. Where were you at the bargaining table during the transit strike?

MT

I don't pretend to know the arcane workings of a union, but can't the MTA just pay them for the hours they work and be done with it? Or has the union somehow managed to highjack the system yet again so they have to be paid for eight hours at a time?

Spirit of 76

The union has negotiated full-time status for these workers. That means as long as they show up and punch in, they have to be paid. The contract won't let the MTA send them home even if there's no work for them to do. Don't you love unions with their legalized extortion?