Coronavirus cuts millions off MTA overtime bill
The coronavirus has taken 24 percent off the MTA’s overtime tab, according to newly released documents.
The $18 billion-per-year agency has paid $333 million worth of overtime through April of this year, compared to $437 million over the same period in 2019.
In April alone, OT expenses were down nearly half from 2019, to $59 million from $111 million.
The bulk of the new savings come from the MTA’s city bus and subway division, which reduced service in late March to cope with thousands of workers out sick due to coronavirus.
City transit OT spending is $12.4 million under budget through April, followed by $4.1 million in savings at Metro-North, $7.3 million at Long Island Rail Road and $1.7 million at MTA Bridges and Tunnels.
All together, the MTA is $28 million, or 8 percent, under budget on overtime spending for the year so far.
The agency was $97 million over its overtime budget at the same time last year — en route to more than a billion dollars in total spending.
Agency officials committed to reduce overtime expenses last year after The Post’s reporting showed they’d become a growing burden on the cash-strapped agency’s budget.
The total MTA OT tab grew from $849 million in 2014 to $1.4 billion in 2018 thanks to an “honor system” that let grifters walk away with thousands of dollars in pay for time they did not actually work.
MTA headquarters includes the agency’s in-house police force, which accounted for the entirety of April’s OT spike, the MTA said. Transit execs and others in management positions are not eligible for overtime pay.
“These costs are attributable to extra roving train patrols following the fatal fire in Harlem in late March, backfilling of shifts for dozens of sick and quarantined officers, and homeless outreach as part of the end-of-line outreach program,” agency rep Shams Tarek said in a statement.
“This is just one of many costs associated with keeping customers and employees safe during a global pandemic.”
The steep drop in OT spending in April coincided with thousands of workers calling out sick after either contracting coronavirus or being exposed to someone with virus symptoms, noted MTA board member Andrew Albert.
Albert said he expects OT costs to increase going forward to meet the ongoing needs of the pandemic — including the costs related to cleaning, public safety and running as many trains as possible to prevent dangerous crowds.
“There’s so much to be done now, between cleaning, sanitizing every surface, having additional police to make sure the system is safe,” Albert said.