MTA Brass Cracking Down on Sick Time, Overtime Overload

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MTA officials are locking horns with the Transit Workers Union over rules governing overtime and sick time. The MTA brass says employees have been abusing the system and costing the Authority $560 million annually; part of that big expenditure was caused by the 25% of bus and subway workers took more than two weeks worth of sick days last year. Now the MTA is assigning a task force to crack down on employees who abuse sick days. Of course, the union is up in arms about it.

"These bureaucrats, they’ve never done a day’s physical labor in their life," TWU Local 100 boss John Samuelsen tells the Post. "And they would faint if they had to work under the conditions that Local 100 members work under every day." Speaking to the Daily News, he fumed, "They demean their own workers publicly on a consistent basis, and they fail to acknowledge NYC Transit workers work in some of the most horrific conditions you can imagine. Several bus operators are assaulted every week, subway workers breathe in toxic fumes... We put our lives on the line to move the riding public, and when we get sick, the company tries to portray us as slackers."

But some high-profile incidents have revealed that some NYC Transit employees have in fact been on vacation while calling out sick. And one subway operator made the equivalent of what he would have earned in five days by just showing up for three days and then working overtime. The MTA says he called out for unpaid sick time the other two days, but because overtime kicks in after each eight-hour shift (not after 40 hours) the operator made his regular week's pay. And the cherry on top is that his replacement on the sick days was paid time-and-a-half!

MTA officials estimate that the OT belt-tightening will result in $22 million in savings this year, while the Authority faces a $400 million budget shortfall. Next year the MTA will try to save $60 million by reducing overtime, though that will require union consent, so get the popcorn ready.

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By John Del Signore in News on May 21, 2010 1:24 PM

Comments [rss]

scott10130

Let us not forget that the MTA workers do come into contact with much more than most people. Bus drivers, for instance, come into close contact with every passenger that boards(besides the folks that enter through the exit when they shouldn't).

inoyourider

Let's not forget the 6 figure salaried management that couldn't balance books if their lives depended on it...and they probably never set foot underground or do any real work.

Since I brought up real work, what about the 6 figure board members, most of whom don't even show up to board meetings (their only job requirement).

That's before the slew of independent contractors and auditors, not one of whom has ever done anything that actually benefited the taxpayers.

There's a lot of cheats and laziness in the MTA, but this pales in comparison to management and it's budget mismanagement.

Spirit of 76

Oh, again with the "toxic fumes." If it's that bad, why doesn't the union demand that the MTA issue respirators? Don't union apologists like "thefacts" always say unions only try to improve working conditions? Seems to me the only working conditions the TWU tries to improve are wages and benefits.

whitecastlerock

The MTA will assign a task force to crack down on employees who abuse sick days–that will probably cost around 25 Million. The MTA will now report a new 3 million dollar shortfall as a result of the task force slacking while cracking. Seriously-FUCK THE MTA

kswissreject

And don't forget their COMPLETELY SELFISH STRIKE that hurt every New Yorker except themselves. This is just the latest in SELFISH, GREEDY behavior by this union.

whitecastlerock

I already commented on the strike ages ago. i am not defending the unions at all. The MTA manages to fuck things up no matter what-with or without unions...

kswissreject

You should actually say FUCK THE TRANSIT WORKERS UNION for being stuck in the boom past and not adapting to the dire financial circumstances their WASTEFUL UNION PRACTICES have helped put us in.

LeLY

1/4 of the entire labor force took two weeks of SICK time?

That is disgraceful.

youngpro

"They demean their own workers publicly on a consistent basis, and they fail to acknowledge NYC Transit workers work in some of the most horrific conditions you can imagine. Several bus operators are assaulted every week, subway workers breathe in toxic fumes..."

...so do something else for a living.