MTA overtime is off the rails
Increasing overtime expenses have plagued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for years. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
How — and why — did a Long Island Rail Road car repair worker quadruple her base pay in one year?
How — and why — did more than 700 Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees each accumulate six figures of overtime pay in a year?
How can the MTA rein in overtime pay?
Increasing overtime expenses have plagued the authority for years. Riders and taxpayers lack the details necessary to assess whether that overtime is appropriate or fiscally sound.
The trend comes amid MTA financial challenges. Fare evasion and ridership levels remain significant concerns. Litigation could delay tolling of traffic into Manhattan, possibly affecting contracts and the next capital plan. A recent report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli pointed to additional risks and estimated that the authority will need $43 billion to fund repairs, upgrades and maintenance.
The overtime concerns are immediate. The public only has the overtime expenditure data thanks to the Empire Center for Public Policy, which pursued it via the Freedom of Information Law. Unfortunately, the MTA doesn't simply release it. The authority owes the public more detailed accountings and explanations; too much is shielded from view.
Take the case of Martina Eugene, a car repair worker who earned $75,169 in base pay at a rate of $43 an hour. Eugene's total pay escalated to $331,190, thanks to $239,819 in overtime. Questions rise about overtime rates, the role of seniority, and how the totals were reached. What we do know from an MTA source: Eugene is recorded as working 4,858 hours last year. That's 93 hours a week — more than 13 hours a day, every day of the year. An average 40-hour workweek amounts to 2,080 hours a year.
We still lack details. But those head-scratching totals illustrate why the MTA should explain overtime expenses more thoroughly, detailing how and why top overtime earners accumulated their pay and the calculus of paying overtime versus hiring new employees. The MTA must audit top overtime earners and release its findings. And the agency must address some glaring questions. Is there fraud? Are employees forced to maintain unsafe and unhealthy schedules? Are outdated work rules to blame?
LIRR president Rob Free told the editorial board the railroad is hiring and training new employees and hopes that will help. Free also appointed an “overtime czar” to find ways to reduce overtime, increase efficiency, and cut costs. That's helpful, but the “czar” also should regularly report findings and recommendations.
Overtime data is a factor in negotiations with LIRR unions. Union leaders say overtime pay is necessary and deserved. That may be true, but they must do their part. That starts with agreeing to use biometric clocks to track workers' hours and rethinking antiquated work rules that are lucrative but make no sense.
MTA overtime is a constant reality. But it remains out of control — and far too opaque. That must change.
MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.
