A HAPPY HAUL DAY AT MTA

Workers get 5x pay

Some train engineers and conductors for the taxpayer-funded, cash-strapped MTA had good reason to celebrate the holiday Tuesday — they were raking in five times their regular pay rate.

As part of their union contract, the Metro-North employees are able to work one round-trip tour — as few as four hours — on holidays while still being paid for a full eight hours, union officials confirmed to The Post.

They receive a holiday pay rate of 2¹/2 times their regular hourly wage. But since some of them are working just half the hours they’re paid for, they essentially receive even double that.

“Some of the guys are having a cakewalk today . . . making one [round] trip — not two — and they’re done,” a Metro-North worker told The Post at Grand Central Terminal. “Easy day, easy money.’’ Competition is fierce to ride the gravy train.

“They’d kill for today,” admitted James Fahey, who heads the Association of Commuter Rail Employees union.

He defended the setup, arguing that conductors and engineers have to put up with particularly raucous passengers on holidays.

“Today, we’re finally getting the money we deserve,” he said.

On holidays, Metro-North runs on a Sunday schedule, meaning there are typically fewer trains. But the MTA still adds some extra runs at peak times to accommodate holiday travelers, Fahey said.

To staff those trains, MetroNorth brings in additional engineers and conductors, but the MTA often lets them go home after one round trip, Fahey noted.

“You have to pay them eight hours,” he said. “A guy might get that one round trip and only do four hours and 50 minutes, but we need that extra worker.”

Most of the coveted gigs go to senior employees, who rake in $44 an hour as conductors and $46 hourly as train engineers, according to records published by the fiscal watchdog See Through NY.

With the holiday bonuses factored in, their haul works out to $920 for the day — or $230 an hour working just four hours.

Union heads pow-wow with the MTA’s schedulers to select which employees get to work holidays, according to Fahey.

Fahey estimated that 20 percent of engineers or conductors working on the Fourth of July holiday had the cushy assignments.

The MTA could not immediately provide figures on how many were working and how many had short shifts this Fourth.

MTA spokeswoman Beth DeFalco said, “We pay our employees under the contract rule, as required. However, it’s important to understand these employees are working away from their families and doing essential, critical jobs.”