A nearly two-year investigation found that a NYC Transit worker earned a whopping $300,000 while repeatedly violating the job’s “rest rules,” performing outside work as a welder for at least nine private companies, the MTA Inspector General’s Office said on Thursday.
According to the scathing report, MTA Inspector General (IG) Daniel Cort said the employee, a structure maintainer who worked an overnight shift, “ignored the rest requirements” for his safety-sensitive job at least 32 times.
“Rest rules” are in place to prevent on-the-job fatigue, especially for hands-on positions that require the utmost attention to machinery or operation. A structure maintainer at the MTA usually performs maintenance and repairs within the transit system.
The maintainer, who was hired by NYC Transit in 2012, received outside funding with his side hustle between April 2020 and July 2024, according to the report.
“This employee’s behavior jeopardized both his safety and the safety of others,” Cort said. “Outside employment rules exist for good reason: to safeguard the system, its workforce, and its customers, to avoid conflicts of interest, and to prevent time abuse. Those who violate the rules will be held accountable.”
The deep dive into the employee’s questionable behavior began in April 2024. Someone made an anonymous complaint alleging that while the maintainer was performing outside work for a subcontractor installing windscreens on an NYC Transit project, he produced a track safety training card that is only issued to NYC Transit employees, the IG’s office explained.
Per the watchdog’s investigation, a review of NYC Transit records, bank records, and other documents showed how much the employee was doing outside work. Only after the inspector general subpoenaed his outside employers did the maintainer fill out a “dual employment request,” according to the investigation.
The maintainer admitted that he is required to have his outside employment approved by NYC Transit and claimed that he filed a dual employment form in 2017, but OIG found no record of that request, the investigation noted.
Meanwhile, the maintainer’s supervisor said he was “unaware” that he was responsible for reviewing and approving his staff’s outside employment requests.
The maintainer already served a five-month, unpaid suspension and was issued a final warning. His supervisor was re-instructed on how to handle employee requests for dual employment, the IG’s office said.
MTA leadership wanted more action to be taken.
“We sought to terminate the employee who is the subject of this report for repeated and egregious violations of dual employment rules and rest requirements that betrayed the public trust and were in blatant disregard of public safety,” Demetrius Crchlow, NYC Transit president, said. “However, an arbitrator found that this outrageous behavior warranted only a suspension without pay. We could not disagree more. Of note, the employee irrevocably forfeited tens of thousands of dollars of salary while suspended.”
The report follows an investigation that occurred last month in which a group of workers from the MTA’s Long Island Rail Road were accused of making, selling and using cloned swipe cards to get paid while not working.
The inspector’s investigation led to disciplinary actions, including suspensions and resignations, against the accused employees, who were not publicly named.
