LIRR president offers employees unexpected overtime incentive
An overtime incentive comes as Long Island Rail Road laborers have come under scrutiny for what some MTA leaders allege is OT "abuse." Photo Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
The Long Island Rail Road offered some of its union workers overtime pay in place of them taking state-permitted time off to vote in Tuesday’s elections, according to a letter obtained by Newsday.
In the letter sent Monday to railroad union leaders and posted at employee facilities, LIRR president Phillip Eng offered employees who requested time off to vote in Tuesday’s primary elections “the opportunity to withdraw that request." Instead, employees would "receive in addition to their regular pay for their regular shift on June 25, 2019, a premium payment equal to three (3) hours at 1½ times pay,” the letter stated.
A state law that passed in April as part of a group of voting reforms grants New Yorkers three hours of paid time off to go vote.
Maxwell Young, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the LIRR's parent agency — said in a statement the MTA's priority was staffing and "ensuring safe and reliable service for our customers."
"In order to make sure there were enough staff on hand to operate the trains and the system, we offered incentives for a limited number of employees and, if they choose to vote, they can do so before or after work as in previous years," Young said. "We succeeded, and as a result service [Tuesday] was uninterrupted."
The LIRR did not say Tuesday how many employees accepted the offer. Polls were open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.
Eng said in the letter that the decision to take the offer would “be entirely voluntarily by the employee, and is not intended in any way to preclude any person from voting.” He added that no employees would be required to withdraw their request, nor be directed to work during the requested time off if they don't withdraw their request, nor be "negatively impacted" if they don't withdraw their request.
The letter comes as LIRR laborers have been under scrutiny for what some MTA leaders have said is “abuse” of overtime. The accusations, stemming from an Empire Center for Public Policy report in April on MTA finances, have resulted in multiple investigations into overtime spending at the railroad, including by the MTA’s Inspector General, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Queens District Attorney, which was one of the offices holding a special election Tuesday.
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