Metro-North workers rake in overtime pay

IMO the taxpayers have a right to know a lot of information, such as:

1) Salary ranges associated with positions
2) What the qualifications for a job are
3) What MNCR's general promotion and hiring policies are, and access to IG reports to determine that those are being followed.

This is the same as ANY government agency.

However, I do not believe that the public has ANY right to know details of what a specific employee makes. That's between the employee, the organization, and the IRS. Nobody else.

And not to be a snob, but $100,000 does not go very far in Farfield or Westchester Counties. Small homes can easily be $400,000, and don't start to get more reasonable until you are waaaaayyyy out.

Frankly, I don't think $80-100k is an unreasonable amount of money for somebody responsible for the safety of 1000 passengers at once - do you?

People forget that the real cost of an employee is often in the benefits and other fixed costs associated with employement. It is often said that the true cost of an employee is three times the base sallary. By paying overtime MNRR might be SAVING money as opposed to hiring more employees.

This is not the first time the media have glommed onto some Metro North crewmen's earnings. Anybody remember another one the papers had a field day with ----- Geez, it must have been 20 years ago ---- in which it became a big news deal that some conductor had earned more than the president of Metro North?

The media of course conveniently forget to discuss the almost unbelievable [by the standards of most of us outside the RR industry] number of days and hours the crews have to put in to make the kind of money that is being reported. MN runs trains almost [not quite] 24x7. I'm sure such guys must have no life.

And another point, these are the kinds of people who watch ESPN and see that their favorite baseball players make about 50 million or more a season for throwing a ball around a field, and conductors are actually working. Hmm,. These passengers have no right to say anything. These conductors are working their asses off and deserve it all.

Tom Curtin wrote:This is not the first time the media have glommed onto some Metro North crewmen's earnings. Anybody remember another one the papers had a field day with ----- Geez, it must have been 20 years ago ---- in which it became a big news deal that some conductor had earned more than the president of Metro North?

The media of course conveniently forget to discuss the almost unbelievable [by the standards of most of us outside the RR industry] number of days and hours the crews have to put in to make the kind of money that is being reported. MN runs trains almost [not quite] 24x7. I'm sure such guys must have no life.

I have heard rumors, probably about this same guy, that one year, a CR worked every bit of overtime he could get, and walked away with about $250 grand! That would be ridiculous for a base salery, however, this guy worked his ass off.

The people whose names were put in the newspaper should sue the paper. Now everyone thinks these guys are some thieves and their neighbors know how much they earn. They didn't do anything wrong so what gives the newspaper the right to print their names? Just because some Open Government Committee says that the monies paid are public record. So say that there were 10 railroad workers who earned X number of dollars. You're divulging the fact that certain workers earned X number of dollars but absent any kind of finding of misconduct, I don't think that the public in general has the right to know exactly how much a person earns, even if he or she works in the public sector.

I know that if you work for NY State or NY City, your salary is considered public information. Anyone with the motivation can find out what any employee is paid. I didn't realize that applied to MN also, but apparently it does. Years ago, when I worked for the city, the secretary had all the checks loose in a pile on her desk on payday, and you fished yours out of the pile. The checks were not in envelopes. The expectation at the time was that what you made was public.
Now people are more private about what they earn. In the private sector, this secretiveness is encouraged and often demanded by employers, because they know that if what people were paid was public information, employers would no longer be able to get away with the arbitrary way they set salary levels and give out raises.

It's a case of economic law meets social law:

The social law is, we (the royal we, certainly not myself) feel someone who isn't a stockbroker or hotshot shouldn't make $100k+ because "it's taxpayer money" or some other BS reason.

The economic law is: Crews cost money. We can cut pay rates, but the crews will seek work elsewhere. When the crews are gone and the trains don't run, pay is raised until the help comes back. I'm sure MNCRR doesn't just throw buckets of money at people (usually).

Related topic: I drive an import, but when I make sales calls, I park a block away. Most of my customers make less money than me, so they feel they are being "ripped off" because supposedly their money is paying for my car and not their crane. That's fine, but if they lower what they pay for their crane, I'll stop building/fixing it. I'll come back when they offer to pay a competitive rate again. I'm not doing anything wrong, but in their eyes it's a ripoff.

Jealousy is such a curse, and it hurts us all.

I just fired my e-mail off to Ms. Halbfinger, I encourage others to do likewise.

Its public info to see how much employees make if tax money is involved.
There is however no need to publish names with these figures unless a crime or impropiety is commited.
There is no reason for every merchant in town or church or ex wife to see what figure belongs tho whom.

This is the problem here. There is from the article the appearance of impropriety on the part of these hard working people. They worked the overtime and were paid accordingly. Sad part is they make less than their counterparts on the LIRR for the identical work. There was no need to give out the names of these people. You could have said simply that so and so many people were paid a certain amount of overtime. Do we know how much Caren Halbfinger makes? Can we find out? Not a chance in hell. These people should consult with attorneys as I do believe there is grounds for a lawsuit against the paper. Perhaps the reporter doesn't like the fact that the people are being paid for their down time. Too bad. Do we question how much airline pilots or flight attendants make? They must rake in a bundle. Oh I forgot, these people have college degrees so it's OK; there are a number of engineers and conductors who have college and post-graduate degrees in such areas as engineering and law but it's not a requirement of the job. The article smells of elitist snobbery.

Elitist snobbery in Westchester County?

Oh, the horrors!

I've yet to receive a reply from Ms. Halbfinger; I'm not holding my breath.

I would be p.o'd if my name was in these stories but I have noticed that more than one employee and an employee's spouse have been more than happy to contribute to the story.

Ms Halbfinger is on maternety leave acording the newspaper.
one of engineers mentioned was never contacted by Journal news or MNCR. and when he called Journal news was hung up on cause he wanted tro speak to someone in charge. Editor on vacation.
Second guy is on vacation and when he asked whom was in charge they hung up on him.