Almost 150 employees of the MTA earn more in overtime than from their base salaries, according to an audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The report assails the MTA's lax attitude towards overtime and calculates that the Authority spent nearly $600 million last year paying employees time-and-a-half.
The Long Island Rail Road pays the most overtime as a percentage of its payroll. DiNapoli says part of the problem is the workers who maintain the tracks are assigned to work day shifts, and then must stay late because it's the only time the tracks are free to do repairs. One track foreman earned $145,000 in overtime last year, on top of an $82,000 salary.
"There has been a culture of acceptance among MTA managers regarding overtime," the report says. "No real efforts were made to make significant changes in longstanding practices that resulted in routine, and often unnecessary, overtime."
DiNapoli focused his audit on the years 2005-2009. Last October, the new chairman of the MTA, Jay Walder, took charge and made reducing overtime a priority, particularly in light of the Authority's budget crisis this year. In May, Walder outlined a plan that would reduce overtime costs by $60 million next year. That amount is in line with what DiNapoli says could easily be saved if corrective actions were put in place.
"The comptroller's audit confirms what we reported earlier this year and reinforces the need for the aggressive actions we're taking to reduce unnecessary overtime," an MTA spokesman says in a statement.
But recently the MTA has increased overtime, at least in one area. In April, New York City Transit division laid off 260 subway station agents, only to end up giving the remaining station agents more overtime. The Transit Workers Union says the episode is another example of poor management, since the MTA would end up saving more money if it had kept the old workers on at straight pay. New York City Transit says the overtime is a temporary problem, although a spokesperson recently admitted it has persisted longer than anticipated.
Comments [3]
Yes it is true that the hours are limited during rush hours for actual maintaince to be performed. The problem is that rush hour is from 5:30 to 10:30am according to the MTA and from 3pm to 10pm. They could give the workers 4 day work weeks and rotate the weekend work at least bi monthly. Or shorten the weekday hours and lenghten the weekend hours but that would incur contractual overtime every week. The MTA hires too many outside contractors that tend too have their own unions as well and their costs are even much higher on the weekends , so they tend to do the bulk of their work on the weekends. There are many things that just aren't reported to the public to inform them of why certain work is done at certain times. The workers are just trying to make a day to day living just as anyone else would in their position. It's amazing how other city jobs are not looked at the same way or for that case many politicians . Just look at our Gov , grossly overpaid or the politicians who nearly shut down our gov't who cost the city millions because of their corruption and stupidity.
no agent c the real problem is u overpaid lazy agent that sit in a car or like to make our work harder by treating us like little kids just stop moron u probably like overweight and lazy the mta should laid u guys off cause u all are make like 100,000 dollars a year without overtime while must of us have to work overtime just to make ends meet y don't u tell the truth like any worker starting seems like yeah u making 20 a hour but when taxes are taking out its like 10 a hour do the math and put up with the bs of the public when the trains or buses are late like they have to go somewhere like the world is coming to a end so next time don't judge the workforce when u stated at the bottom if it wasn't 4 the union the mta will treat all of us like slaves and make u do jobs that u are not qualify to do.
This is a good example of how unionized labor is destroying the American economy.
The NYC Transit track maintainer example is revealing... They start their shift at the height of rush-hour, which requires them to sit around and do nothing until 10am. Then, it takes at least an hour to setup the worksite before they can get started on their maintenance activities. They can only work until about 3pm until they have to break down for the evening rush. Do the math... Out of a single 8-hour shift, including lunch, we get only about *3 hours* of actual work from these people!
The TA has tried for years to diversify their work assignments and/or vary their shifts so they could be doing something useful when they’re allowed on the tracks. But no, the union fights us tooth and nail every time! And if they don’t like how the TA is treating them, they threaten to disrupt operations, slow down the work, etc.
Then TA gets blamed for a lot of inefficacies, ineptitude and waste, but it's more often than not the *unions* that are at the root of the problem!
A_C
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