#MTA paid track worker $79K in overtime by mistake: watchdog

The MTA paid a subway worker $79,000 in overtime pay over three years that she wasn’t actually eligible for — while no one in management noticed, according to a new report from the agency’s watchdog.

MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said no less than eight supervisors failed to flag the unnamed office worker’s OT and travel time tab — which she earned in violation of her contract and agency policies prohibiting extra hours for office workers.

“Wasting taxpayer money on unnecessary overtime and travel time is bad enough, but that multiple MTA supervisors provided so little oversight they actually approved it, is just plain wrong,” Pokorny said in a statement.

An MTA directive in 2019 to probe high overtime earners uncovered the woman’s inadvertent payday — yet not one of her managers would take responsibility, the IG said.

Interviews by IG investigators revealed the woman had been verbally authorized by her immediate supervisor to work an extra one or two hours per day at her desk — even though the MTA typically does not permit OT for office work.

The woman earned $42,868 in extra pay from the OT shifts, which lasted just six months, from Nov. 8, 2018, through March 23, 2019.

Investigators also found that she’d received another $37,021 in illegitimate “travel time” to travel to and from her work site. Per her contract, the woman should have only received such payments for her first two months working at the site, investigators said.

The woman was not penalized for the violations — which IG investigators pinned on her managers and a lack of effective policies and protocols to enforce MTA rules — and in fact will get to keep the cash.

The subway track department has since required that all OT have the explicit approval of a general superintendent or higher, the IG report said.

In response to the IG’s investigation, transit leaders reminded MTA managers of their responsibility to monitor overtime and created a “more substantive” OT training for supervisors.

“The MTA has aggressively tackled overtime and implemented new controls to substantially increase oversight and accountability — resulting in a nearly quarter of a billion dollar decrease since 2018 and the implementation of a five-year plan to cut overtime costs by nearly $1 billion,” MTA rep Meredith Daniels said in a statement.

“This case proves the process worked as a NYC Transit superintendent identified payment of unnecessary overtime and stopped it, with a prompt referral to the Inspector General for investigation. We appreciate the Inspector General’s ongoing focus on overtime reform, which we share.”