Can’t put finger on OT
Pandemic shelves use of new MTA time clocks: report
The coronavirus pandemic has turned the MTA’s push to slow soaring overtime costs into a quixotic task, a report released Monday by the agency’s Inspector General shows.
Transit officials last year ordered hundreds of “biometric” time clocks that require workers to scan their fingerprints to check in and out of their shifts. The goal was to keep employees honest after the agency’s overtime costs ballooned by $116 million, or 16%, in 2018 from 2017.
But in late March, Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers were told to no longer use the new devices out of fear of spreading COVID-19. A shift among many office employees to remote work also made the fancy clocks temporarily useless.
“While biometric capabilities have been suspended to help reduce spread of COVID-19, employees reporting to work are required to swipe their cards at clocks and the MTA is working aggressively to implement remote capability for the limited number of those teleworking,” said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan.
Monday’s IG report said MTA leaders were working to find a new way to monitor employees during the pandemic — and they’ve hired out-of-house consultants to figure out a solution.
Under the direction of the agency’s chief operating officer, Mario Peloquin, the IT department “is developing a ‘roadmap’ with the help of a consulting firm to prioritize all timekeeping and overtime-related projects,” the report states.
According to a recommendation from a IG report last fall, the new clocks — which the MTA bought from the company Kronos for $23.75 million — were supposed to help the agency keep a list of “high rollers” who file for the most overtime in a given pay period.
That kind of list could help the MTA crack down on wage fraudsters, like four Long Island Rail Road foremen who were accused of bilking a collective $650,000 in overtime during 2018.
A 2019 report commissioned by the MTA board found mismanagement of employees working on Gov. Cuomo’s $836 million Subway Action Plan had an even bigger impact of overtime costs than wage cheats on the LIRR.
Still, the agency has managed to turn a corner on overtime costs even without the modern time clocks.
Overtime at the MTA fell by $99 million during the first five months of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019 — but the IG report warns a lack of a unified timekeeping system may be costing money the agency needs after the pandemic hammered its finances.