$2.4 Million for Work Never Done

Over the past 5 years, Metro has paid out nearly $2.4 million in grievance back pay for work never done, according to documents obtained by Unsuck DC Metro in a freedom of information request.

Worse yet, a good chunk of that money has gone to people like the McGruff assaulter, and the bus driver charged with negligent homicide, both of whom were fired--for a period--and then rehired with back pay.

According to a source familiar with Metro's finances, some of the $2.4 million is paid out in labor "squabbles," for example when someone with less seniority gets to work overtime when it should have been offered to someone with more seniority.

But, they add, there are "serious outrages" hidden in those numbers.

A lot of cases, like the McGruff case, are "because someone didn't dot all of the i's and cross the t's," the source said.

During my tenure there, there were several cases of revenue collection people being caught on video filling their pockets with money from the ticket vending machines in the rail stations and then getting their jobs back after filing a grievance.

In my personal interactions with the fine folks from the Metro Employee and Labor Relations Department, it always appeared to me that they were 100 percent in the pockets of the unions; others were just plain incompetent and made up the rules as they went along.

According to the documents, "most grievances are settlements with local 689. There are very few with 922 and local 2."

According to Metro, ATU 689 makes up 69 percent of the workforce at Metro. Local 922, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, makes up 3 percent and Local 2, the Office and Professional Employees International Union, makes up 7 percent.

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