Report: MTA short of goal to keep better track of employee time

The MTA has work to do to keep better track of its employees' work hours and address excessive overtime among some — including Long Island Rail Road workers — whose whereabouts are not being adequately tracked, according to a new report.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny on Tuesday issued the report reviewing the agency’s progress in the fourth quarter of 2019 in pursuing recommendations made in August by an overtime consultant. One key directive was that the MTA begin tracking its employees using a Kronos biometric time clock that scans employees’ fingers to confirm their starting and quitting times.

Although the MTA aimed to have 99% of its workers using the new system by the beginning of 2020, the report noted the agency was at 85% on Jan. 17 — about 8,000 employees short of its goal.

One key concern, according to the report, is that LIRR employees in remote locations do not have access to the timekeeping technology.

"High overtime earners at [the] LIRR who work in remote locations are a particular focus for the [Office of the Inspector General], as we repeatedly have seen cases of time abuse with this population,” said the report, which added that the lack of “a proper system to verify this population’s time and attendance could create opportunities for employees to claim overtime that was not worked or even assigned to them without being detected.”

MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins on Tuesday said agency officials “have worked tirelessly to implement the biometric clock system across our operating agencies.”

“As the report itself notes, the vast majority of our 74,000 employees are registered and actively using our modern timekeeping system, with the exception of a small number of employees,” including those who work remotely, Collins said.

The heightened focus on excessive overtime followed the release last spring of a payroll report by the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based, fiscally conservative think tank. That analysis illustrated how overtime significantly padded the pay of the MTA’s top earners, including former LIRR chief measurement operator Thomas Caputo, who made more than $344,000 in overtime, on top of his $117,499 annual salary in 2018. He since has retired.

The logistical challenge of getting all of the LIRR’s employees to use the biometric time clocks has been raised by railroad union leaders. They have suggested the new system could create more overtime for hundreds of employees who begin and end their workdays at assigned job sites, including when deployed to make emergency repairs. Punching in and out of work could require them to travel out of their way to an employee facility at the beginning and end of their shifts, union officials have said. 

Anthony Simon, who heads the LIRR’s largest union, said laborers have been working with the railroad to increase and improve the use of the biometric clocks.

“What should matter most and be emphasized is the fact that LIRR employees are delivering on the major projects necessary to transform and improve the system,” said Simon, general chairman of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.

The report noted that the MTA has proposed a “mobile solution to standardize time and attendance” for remote workers that it expects to have in place by the second quarter of 2020. Investigators will “continue to closely monitor progress,” the report said.

At the LIRR, 95% of employees are using the biometric timeclocks, said LIRR president Phillip Eng, who added that the railroad is working with labor to implement the new system and address concerns raised by the report.

"This includes steps to ensure that employees both at permanent facilities and all of our hardworking field crews have access to biometric clocks," Eng said. "We did this with clocks in work trailers and permanent headquarters, ensuring their timekeeping is recorded, including overtime."

The MTA explored a system that would allow workers to verify their time and attendance remotely using voice recognition technology, but it was unsuccessful, Collins said. The agency is now working on installing the time clocks at several work sites throughout the system, close to where work crews are likely to be deployed.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.