NEW YORK — Four Long Island Rail Road employees at the Hillside Maintenance Complex in Queens have been disciplined for timekeeping abuse discovered by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Office of Inspector General, Inspector General Daniel G. Cort announced.
Three of the employees were suspended for periods ranging from 120 days to nine months, while a fourth, who retired during the investigation, was not granted a cash-out of his sick leave and had pay recouped for eight hours of unearned overtime.
Three electricians and a car repairman were involved. Two of the workers involved admitted to leaving work early, while the other two admitted swiping out those workers to cover the early departures. Some of the acts occurred during overtime hours when there is less supervision.
“This was a coordinated effort by Long Island Rail Road employees to abuse the timekeeping system and cut hours off their shifts without any apparent fear of repercussions,” Cort said in a press release. “But this kind of fraud won’t be tolerated. I thank LIRR management for bringing this matter mto our attention.”
The LIRR told the Office of Inspector General it is now retaining documentation of worker assignments for later investigations or audits. A full report is available here.
The Office of Inspector General said the incident was addressed as part of a broader investigation into time abuse and fraudulent timekeeping at LIRR facilities.
How about repaying the tax payers of NY for what they stole? With interest!