Retired LIRR Worker Pads Salary With OT

Overtime abuse is a huge matter of debate within transit circles as many MTA employees have taken advantage of work rules in place to help bolster their annual salary or pension due after retirement.

The latest battle stems from recently retired LIRR engineer Dominick Masiello who earned over $175,000 last year in overtime & perks on top of his $75,389 base salary. Henrick Karoliszyn & Rich Schapiro of the New York Daily News has more:

An LIRR engineer punched his ticket on the MTA gravy train again, pocketing nearly $175,000 in overtime and other perks in 2010 – his third straight year as one of the agency’s top earners.

Though Dominick Masiello’s base salary was $75,389, he took home more than triple that amount – a staggering $250,401, payroll records show.

The monster payday was nothing new for Masiello, 57. For the past three years, the Long Island man has ranked among the top 10 highest-paid workers in terms of overtime and extras.

In 2009, he raked in $147,514 in overtime and perks on top of his $75,389 salary. The previous year, he scored $160,000 in extras to pad his $73,193 salary.

Masiello retired from the Long Island Rail Road in December, but he still managed to take home a quarter-million dollars for the year – putting him among the MTA’s top 10 best-compensated employees in 2010, records show.

He was in the same stratosphere as MTA chief Jay Walder ($349,040) and the top honchos of the LIRR, New York City Transit and Metro-North.

Masiello defended his haul, saying union work rules allowed him to rake in big bucks. For example, he made an extra day’s pay when he was moved to a different station.

“There’s nothing to hide,” he said from his modest, two-story brick home in Port Washington. “I worked hard for that money.”

Masiello added he has worked the night shift for nearly 30 years, putting in at least six days a week. “Most people say, ‘I don’t know how you did that job,'” Masiello said. “I put my life into it.”

An MTA official said Masiello’s gargantuan salary in 2010 was largely due to his retiring, which enabled him to cash out sick and vacation days.

But the official agreed Masiello has all along benefitted from arcane union work rules – and he wasn’t the only one.

Click here for the complete story.

Once again, the New York Daily News produces a piece based on sensationalist journalism with the intent of making the battle about the big guy vs little guy. My initial response is what rules did he break in earning his salaries? If none, then he legitimately earned his salary & I see no point to this story.

If people have such an issue with his salary, they should go get a job with the agency & rack up the cash which they feel is so undeserved. I hate to break it to the many jealous & misinformed, the majority of employees are not lazy, overpaid, & rude people that they are scapegoated to be.

The agency has many hard workers who do jobs that most would not want to bother with & put in hours most would refuse. So if they legally pad their salary due to rules put in place, so be it. It is the ones who fraudulently do it that I will never support. However if they put in the time, pay them & move on.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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