Residents in New York know how essential the public transit system is to make things work in and around New York City. Keeping on top of maintenance, repair and modernization needs certainly is no small task. This task, in fact, is exactly why union officials and some others are asserting that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority saw a major spike in the amount of money paid out in overtime to employees in 2018.
That assertion, however, is not necessarily one that some other entities agree with. According to Newsweek, a report from The New York Times indicates that an investigation has been launched into the overtime payments of several MTA employees. This investigation comes on the heels of reporting from a watchdog group that is responsible for collecting public employee data. The report indicates that in 2018, MTA’s overtime payments increased by nearly $420 million.
Currently time records for some identified employees are being reviewed. It is not known if more will follow. Some of the data reported include that two maintenance supervisors earned more than $350,000 last year due to the amount of overtime they amassed. Another 77 employees in Westchester County are said to have earned more than $100,000 each in overtime alone. In Metro North, 125 MTA employees are said to have more than doubled their salaries.
Even if these earnings are accurate, that does not mean any wrongdoing occurred. The amount of work done to keep the public buses, trains and subways running in New York will no doubt need to be evaluated as well as individual employee earnings in order to learn the truth.