Uber fees to aid MTA workers

HIGHER FEES for taxis and e-hail rides like Uber will ensure job security for hundreds of MTA workers hired to fix the subways.

Repair crews hired as part of the MTA’s $836 million Subway Action Plan got their jobs provisionally — a status that led them to believe they’d be canned once the emergency repair program ended.

But MTA chief Joe Lhota said $415 million in new congestion pricing fees charged to taxi riders and others riding for-hire vehicles will be used to fund the jobs permanently.

Starting next year, the new fees will be charged in Manhattan south of 96th Street — $2.50 for taxis and $2.75 for e-hails.

Transit officials stressed the provisional workers are trained and learning on the job while they wait to take the civil service test for their positions.

“These are highly technical jobs,” Lhota said.

It’s unclear how many of those workers were hired as part of the MTA’s push to improve subway service.

Eric Domena, chairman of the 207th St. overhaul shop at Transport Workers Union Local 100, said the workers are worried about their status.

“If they don’t become permanent employees, they’re going to be in a position where they can get laid off,” Domena said. “The morale — it gets them nervous. They don’t really know, are they coming or going?”

The MTA couldn’t provide an exact count of provisional employees under the Subway Action Plan, though workers say there are hundreds of them.

John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union, said whether they’re temporary or permanent, they’re unionized.

“They’re not coming into the shop unless they’re TWU,” he said.