Reading the news this evening, and found the above titled article on a website I follow pretty regularly. The source is a story in the Washington Free Beacon by Elizabeth Herrington; posted this evening @ 2:23 PM on this date 06/15/2015.
FTA:[snip] _"…Timesheets for employees of Amtrak are riddled with abuse, according to a recent audit report, with cases of workers claiming over 40 h_ours of work in a single day.
The audit released by Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) Thursday found examples of abuse in the overtime system, which totaled nearly $200 million in overtime pay last year…." [snipped]
[soapbox] There are all sorts of articles that have been commented on in this FORUM, and in the pages of TRAINS; over time. The big deal made over monies lost, and huge cost expenses in the on-board food service on AMTRAK trains. Th’e PTC ‘scandal’ in the aftermath of the recent Philadelphia train crash. There never seems to be enogh money to ‘do’ what ‘AMTRAK’ [management] seems to need to meet its needs. All over the place; the agency [and Federal management] seems to harp on the constant theme: that they need more money to do their job, and deliver the services that they are charted by Congress to deliver. Yet, the obvious is that Congressional oversight does not ‘fix’ the problem, or force their management to ‘perform’ to a level of reasonableness?
Jobs do not seem to be lost ( careers sacrificed?), investigations find various bureaucrats to be non-pe
The ultimate source of the story is the Amtrak OIG office, regardless of the politics of whoever picked it up:
“The audit released by Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) Thursday found examples of abuse in the overtime system, which totaled nearly $200 million in overtime pay last year.”
Seriously, you read the whole thing? When I was a firefighter for the Forest Service, I regularly worked 20 hour days, when I was a construction Inspector, I worked 15 to 18 hour days. Not fun, not fraudulent. When I see former congressman Alan West and John Bolton on the site , I think i’ll look elsewhere for my “Fair and Balanced” information.
Okay, fair enough. Seriously, (yes I can do that) the lack of over sight can be a problem. As a former Federal employee, some of the hardest working people I ever met were Federal Employees. Also, some of the worst were Federal Employees. Over sight was the problem, the worst and the best were treated equally. As a fellow taxpayer…arrrgh!
All very true. You’ve obviously been there and done that. The most frustrating thing is to watch the lazy and/or incompetent get promoted to out-of-the-way spots where they don’t bring the whole organization to a grinding halt.
The provisions of various craft contracts call for overtime in certain circumstances - circumstances that may result in all earnings for particular employees to be at the overtime rate.
Personal example -
I was awarded on bid a particular job on Sept. 1, the agreement I work under requires me to be placed on the job within 7 days of the award date. With a shortage of QUALIFIED personnel for the position I was working prior to the award, I was held on that position past the 7 day mark, with all days past 7 being paid for at the Overtime rate. I was held on my ‘old’ position for over 2 months, working 7 days a week (plus several ‘doubles’) as well as getting training pay for those that were attempting to qualify on my ‘old’ position.
I got a kick out the Free Bacon’s typical Amtrak employee hardly at work. Not much new in the story, though.
Excerpt from special employee advisory, “A message from Joe Boardman,” March 28, 2014 http://www.utulocal1933.org/upload/Amtrak%20Adv-March28.pdf
Here’s the problem. Our expenses are too high and our revenue is too low. We have great opportunities to become better as a place to work, better in the service we deliver and better in our control of our own future. However, we continue to struggle with overhead costs, overtime costs and lack of efficiencies.
Our average hourly wage for agreement employees is $28.86. That’s a just wage, a living wage, and whenever possible, an annual wage. I’m proud that we are able to offer wages t
When I was a conductor, I was called once to go dogcatching. Our first train was 80 miles out. It was a 160 miles round trip out of our terminal to where we relieved it. Upon return, we were sent out again. Actually we went back out three additional times for three more trains. None of those were more than about 20 miles east of our terminal. The contract rules in effect at that time were that if you went out over 50 miles from the home terminal, each additional trip out was to be paid at a bsic day of 8hrs/130 miles. I was able to claim 160 miles for the first trip and 130 miles for each of the 3 other trips. In effect I was claiming 4 days in one tour of duty. It was reviewed by timekeeping, like all pay and claims are, and paid. The contract has since been changed to one day for dog catching plus a second day if you are sent out for an additional train after 8 hrs on duty.
There is a yard provision where if you go on duty on a yard job within 22 1/2 hours of working a previous yard job (the time period beginning at the first job’s start time) the second yard job pays overtime for the entire tour of duty. Hard to do now after the 10 hours undisturbed rest requirement took effect.
Without knowing all the details, it’s hard to comment on what is and isn’t fraudelent. The numbers themselves are sensational and that’s probably what Amtrak’s critics want to focus on. Besides, if some of the claims were out of line, why did Amtrak’s timekeeping allow them?
I think the biggest red flag is not that people put in for excessive overtime, but that some people had nothing but overtime.
Clearly there is something wrong with the payroll system if it allows such transactions, especially without somehow flagging them.
Another red flag should be an HOS employee with more hours than HOS regs allow.
Otherwise, overtime happens.
The provisions of various craft contracts call for overtime in certain circumstances - circumstances that may result in all earnings for particular employees to be at the overtime rate.
Personal example -
I was awarded on bid a particular job on Sept. 1, the agreement I work under requires me to be placed on the job within 7 days of the award date. With a shortage of QUALIFIED personnel for the position I was working prior to the award, I was held on that position past the 7 day mark, with all days past 7 being paid for at the Overtime rate. I was held on my ‘old’ position for over 2 months, working 7 days a week (plus several ‘doubles’) as well as getting training pay for tho
The bigger problem to me is that Amtrak has so many unions to deal with. I know of no orther Federal or qusi-Federal agency which has that problem to Amtrack’s extent. I assume this becasue of how things were structured in the RR industry when Amtrack was established. Unless that changes, I don’t see any hope for Amtrack ever having a chance to actually become more than it currently is.
On a side note, the one dinning attendent situation mentioned also adds support for the idea of having Amtrack’s food services franchised out/privatized.
There is a difference between hard news and commentary.
“Our bosses – our customers, the states who hire us to provide service, the Congress, the administration, our board of directors and ultimately the taxpayers - expect us to run the corporation as much like a business as we can. We’ve made progress in that direction, but more needs to be done. Here’s the problem. Our expenses are too high and our revenue is too low.”
First, I wish the moderators would combine this thread with the similar thread in the Passenger section. My next point is one that I addressed there, and this seems superfluous.
Second, it makes perfect sense for some days to be paid 100% overtime, according to the provisions of the contract. I could be misremembering some details of the contract because I’ve been retired from Amtrak for over a year, but I believe onboard service employees are guaranteed 180 hours of work per month. At a certain point after 180 hours is reached, every additional hour is paid at an overtime rate. I know of employees who have spent an ENTIRE MONTH on the road, with not a single night spent at home BECAUSE MANAGEMENT NEEDED THEM AND ASKED THEM TO. In such a case, the employee reaches 180 hours in only about 2 weeks. After that, every hour of every additional day is paid at the overtime rate. If a holiday falls during that period, even more money is paid.
That’s what the contract stipulates. It may seem strange to those who are accustomed to working a 9-to-5, Monday through Friday job; but that’s the reality of working in a 24-7 operation.
Bruce Rauner thinks he can run the State of Illinois like a business except that he doesn’t know what to do with a board of directors (General Assembly) that isn’t a bunch of obedient lapdogs.
Billionaire Bruce thinks he can buy the state. He’s spending millions again on TV commercials to pressure the legislature. They, especially Speaker Madigan, are not any great shakes, either.
