MBTA OT keeps on going
Workers cash in despite low ridership
Riders may have disappeared amid the pandemic, but MBTA employees are riding a runaway overtime train that doled out $82 million last year — on par with prepandemic spending — that shows no signs of slowing down with dozens of employees on track to pad their salaries with six-figure payouts again in 2021, even as the cash-strapped agency rolls out deep service cuts.
Thirty-five T workers earned more than $100,000 in overtime in 2020, with 50 employees doubling and two even tripling their base pay thanks to overtime accrued.
Charlie Chieppo of the Pioneer Institute said the out-of-control overtime shows, “a lack of basic respect for taxpayers,” in an agency that has been plagued by numerous spending scandals and is at the mercy of powerful unions.
A Herald review of the payroll data so far in 2021 shows significant sums of overtime still being paid to those same top earners from 2021.
Overtime spending was down in 2020 after it jumped to $96.2 million in 2019 following major problems with red line derailments, but was on par with 2018 overtime spending of $81.9 million.
T officials are projecting a budget gap of $54 million to $79 million for the current fiscal year and $577 million to $652 million in the next one, which starts in July. But transportation advocate Christopher Dempsey of Transportation for Massachusetts called the budget woes a “manufactured crisis.”
The MBTA is in line to receive $1.1 billion in total federal stimulus funds so far — money it isn’t factoring in to plug the budget hole.
“They are saving it for a future rainy day. We say this is the rainy day,” Dempsey said.
To balance its budget, the T last year issued $1.6 million in buyouts and in December ordered furloughs for hundreds of its union members, which is expected to save the T $2.5 million.
On Saturday the agency forged ahead with a series of deep service cuts.
MBTA GM Steve Poftak meanwhile took a $20,800 bonus on top of his $324,522 salary, according to payroll records. The bonus is tied the Poftak’s performance per his contract and was for 2019. He has deferred acceptance of his 2020 bonus, according to a spokesman.
The T wouldn’t say on Sunday how much it plans to save with the temporary service cuts.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told the Herald overtime costs were necessary to keep up operations in an unprecedented year.
The Carmen’s union local 589, which represents the bus and train operators, defended its overtime by, “brave workers stepping up to take extra shifts amid a life-threatening pandemic.”
Hundreds of employees contracted the virus or had to take leaves after being exposed to someone who contracted the virus, requiring others to step in. Transit police, who are included in the MBTA payroll, are understaffed and dispensed resources at “large demonstrations last year,” Pesaturo said.
Go to the Herald’s “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report at bostonherald.com to scan all the MASSDOT pay from the past two years. Other state pay, from troopers to Umass teachers and staff, are also posted. Send any tips to joed@bostonherald.com and look for continued coverage of state expenditures all year in the Herald.