COV derailed MTA efforts to limit OT

The MTA’s overtime bill rose last year for the first time since the agency’s 2019 commitment to cut back on extra spending as it faced persistent COVID-related crew shortages, according to public documents.

The agency’s overall overtime spending in 2021 grew by 3%, from $1.137 billion to $1.164 billion, according to the documents, which attributed the spike to “vacancy and availability coverage, additional maintenance requirements and adverse weather response.”

Higher costs were driven primarily by NYC Transit, the MTA’s buses and subways division, whose overtime tab grew 6% year-over-year through November, the last month of available data.

MTA Chair Janno Lieber on Monday defended the slight increase as a “strategic and effective use of overtime in the riders’ behalf ” as the division struggled to maintain service after a wave of retirements and a pandemic hiring freeze left it short of workers.

“We were struggling with a crew shortage brought on by COVID,” Lieber said. “One of the ways that we successfully fought our way back to 94% of service, before Omicron hit, was by using overtime.”

Lieber said the use of OT to close coverage gaps was “different than the overtime that is associated with people taking advantage of the system and has led to some criminal-justice activity.”

But the rising costs still frustrate the MTA’s 2019 commitment to reduce OT spending after a 2019 Post report exposing allegations of overtime abuse at the authority.

The MTA, under previous Chairman Pat Foye, hired consultants in 2019 to develop a plan to prevent fraud in the future.

Overtime spending peaked at $1.4 billion in 2018, but had dropped in the years since.