How to make $210k income at the LIRR + plus free transit!

Some of the LIRR staff work very hard and under not so great conditions. Some.....not so much.
Let's put this into perspective. It takes 1034 passengers with monthly passes in zone 7 to pay for that one worker making $210k. How many 8 car trains is that? Heck, that has to be most of the morning commute from Baldwin Station!

From Newday:
Pay rules plague LIRR
Extra wages known as 'penalty payments' amount to $5.3M in earnings in 2004 for engineers, conductors
ALBANY - Dozens of Long Island Rail Road engineers and conductors have been doubling and tripling their salaries because of union work rules that dramatically increase pay when workers perform duties outside of their job descriptions, investigators have found.

An MTA Inspector General's report, obtained yesterday by Newsday, found that in 2004, the Long Island Rail Road's 77 highest paid engineers and conductors doubled or tripled their base salaries, from $64,000 to annual compensation packages as high as $210,000.

The extra wages, known as "penalty payments," are separate from overtime and can be paid to employees when they're working during their regular shifts. The payments also cost the LIRR more in the long run because they go toward employees' pensions after they take them into higher pay brackets.

[snip -ov]

its a deal if you can get it...

Isnt America great! More power to them if they can get it! Theres a loophole and why not take advantage of it.

Railroading is full of tradition. Buffs love to see old equipment, procedures, special moves and a host of things that are all part of American railroading..and they love it because many times it's a throwback to yesteryear.

Part of that "tradition" is that most contractual agreements include what are reffered to as work rules. Those work rules define who can do what and so on. Violating those work rules incurred expense to the carriers.

Those "penalty" payments are what they are...penalties for the LIRR and other roads violating work rules. They were put into contracts to PREVENT the financially astute carrier from violating work rules.

Now, the IG and the recipient of thousands of dollars in MTA/LIRR advertising, Newsday, make a fuss about salaries of Engineers and Conductors being inflated due to Penalty payments.

The root cause of the payments are the LIRR in the first place. If the management of the LIRR knew the agreements and knew railroading like the old-timers that used to run the place, C&E's would never inflate their salaries because the Railroad would prevent itself from having to pay penalties.

What is lost in all this is that those work rules have been in contracts for at a minimum 30 to 50 years and they were never a problem. With the current managment, they are..now why is that? Has Conductors and Engineers gotten smarter? NO..the people who run the road have gotten dumber.

That is the cause in the first place. Let smarter people run the Railroad and work rules will go back to taking up space in contractual agreements and nothing more.

Form 19, I like that.

You are right on the money. And let's remember that these penalty payments and the contracts that provide them were agreed to by both the Company and the Union.

It's kind of absurd for the Company to now cry to the media about a rule they put into place and now, suddenly, are incapible of managing.

Let's look at motivation for this article. We know that Newsday would not print anything about a $2 million advertiser without their blessing. Most Railroad union contracts expire in nine months, and the engineers' expired three years ago.

There's a lame duck Governor and an Inspector General with political asperations. The MTA has just been cited for misaccounting of $33 million dollars, and another fare hike is in the wind.

Let the class envy begin.

Clemuel

Well said Clem and Form
But lets not forget that since penalties are split between Condrs and brakeman, the RR is actually saving money by paying a penaltly to a road crew or roustabout for switching out Ronkonkoma yard. Other wise they would have to assign a drill crew, with a yard master and possibly a switch tender. So that's 4 salaries a day instead of 2.
Surprisingly Newsday didn't mention that.

Form 19 and Clem are 100 % correct. The key word is "penalty" and that's what those claims are.

If the comapny for whatever reason does the right thing, there are no extra claims. We all do our shift, end up where we started, do the job that we bid and our senority allows us to own ... amen.

And as it was stated in the piece some of those claims were incurred due to keeping trains safe and on time.

So, let's hear some of those same complainers standing on the platform saying ... "No, please don't use a crew out of assignment and incur a claim, I'll just stand here for another 1/2 hour until the regular crew arrives on their late train".

Its also cheaper for the company to pay the penalties and overtime as it reduces the work force required, saving in health and benefit pay outs and reduces the potential for FELA suits.
When the employees benefits from the contracts and company policies, it's called sharp shooting. When the company benefits from the policies, it "good business practice. I wonder why that is?

What makes you think that Newsday would tell a complete and thorough story. People ... PLEEEEEEEASE!!!!

since when does ANY news reporting group report the entire story? lol

Form and Clem you said it agian, thats was right on the money.

What would managment need to be paid if they worked up from car cleaner or C&E to make permotion to management wanting for the C&Es and Others below management in the current system?

I'm not knocking it... I'd like that kind of $$$$ showing up at my job. "Oops... your supposed to do this today... you did that, too... here's a day's pay plus a half..." Nice gig!

Send in a resume.

Management incompetence is mentioned quite often on this forum, why not a “Newsday” article on the issues within the Management of the “Long Island Rail Road Company” let’s see how far that would get. Mention fact’s where real true railroad experience was and or is shot down by this new breed . State how the LIRR may run better if management of the modern LIRR were to be required 10-15 years of road service or what ever else those in the know can add. Really make visible in simplest form how many stuck trains and or minor issues could have or would have been repaired on the road and stress how this breed makes the taxpayer “customer” wait hours for nothing when someone of hard core experience in the field could have resolved the issue in an hr or 2 instead of the 3, 4 and more it may take now days/
Just and idea. Thoughts , Inputs? If they can attack you, you can attack them don’t let them take away what is rightfully yours.

badneighbor wrote:I'm not knocking it... I'd like that kind of $$$$ showing up at my job. "Oops... your supposed to do this today... you did that, too... here's a day's pay plus a half..." Nice gig!

Ok look at it like this . I hire you to replace my furnance, but when you get to my house I tell you to replace the waterheater as well, would you do it for no additonal cost? I mean I already paying you to be here, so why should it cost me more money? See what I am saying?