New York Post, Tuesday, August 13, 2019nypost.com5Lawyers for accused
“bike-path terrorist” Say-
fullo Saipov want prosecu-
tors to reveal intercepted
calls between their client
and supporters of ISIS.
They argue that Saipov —
who faces the death penalty
for the Halloween 2017 ter-
ror attack that left eight dead
in lower Manhattan — has a
right to review the inter-
cepts, which prosecutors
have argued are confidential.
“The government must
make a choice: its death
penalty or its secrecy,”
reads the 10-page docu-
ment, addressed to Manhat-
tan federal Judge Vernon
Broderick, filed late Friday.
“Without access to what
the government knows
about Mr. Saipov’s contacts’
interaction with and sup-
port for radical Islamism,
the defense is at a clear dis-
advantage,” the filings state.
Prosecutors have said they
don’t plan to present the
wiretaps at the trial, set for
April 2020, and therefore
shouldn’t have to share them
with the defense.Emily Saul
Bike-path
suspect’s
‘ISIS ties’
Three of the five young-
sters killed in a fire at a home
child-care center in Pennsyl-
vania were the children of a
volunteer firefighter who was
responding to another call, an
official said Monday.
Luther Jones’ two daugh-
ters and a son were trapped in
the Erie blaze Sunday while
he was on what turned out to
be a false alarm, said Law-
rence Park Township Volun-
teer Fire Chief Joe Crotty.
The children haven’t been
officially identified, but the
Erie Fire Department said
they range in age from 8
months to 7 years. AP
Blaze vics were
fireman’s kids
SAYFULLO SAIPOV
Defense targets wiretaps.By DAVID MEYER
Transit ReporterThe average New York City
Transit employee missed 54 days
of work last year, according to
data obtained by The Post — and
experts say the high number is
driving the agency’s skyrocketing
overtime costs.
The internal data show that
among those days, workers for the
MTA’s city subway and bus arm
take an average of 18 vacation
days, eight holidays, nine sick days
and four training days — all paid.
Employees also took an average
of six workers’ comp days and an-
other five unpaid sick days, the
data show.
At the same time, the MTA’s
overtime bill has jumped 36 per-
cent since 2016 — up to $1 billion
last year — and officials say the
large amount of time workers are
absent is one of the reasons so
much OT is needed.
The MTA faces deficits ap-proaching $1 billion in
the coming years, and
as the agency enters
into negotiations with
its unions, experts say
the provisions that al-
low for so much time
away from work must
change in order to
rein in costs.
“The low average
work year helps ex-
plain the overtime
surge,” said E.J. McMahon of the
Empire Center for Public Policy.
“Both of these problems under-
score the need for MTA manage-
ment to demand significant work
rule changes in the coming round
of contract talks with MTA
unions.”
Much of the NYCT workers’
time off is guaranteed in the
Transport Workers Union Local
100’s contract, which expired in
May.
The contract gives every bus
and subway worker a minimum of10 vacation days per
year — plus 10 more af-
ter three years of ser-
vice and another five
after 15 — as well as 12
paid sick days.
Workers are also en-
titled to nine public
holidays — and, after
one year of service,
their birthdays.
MTA Chairman Pat
Foye has also previ-
ously pinned high overtime costs
on employee availability, and
pointed to the negotiating table as
the place to address them.
“Availability impacts overtime
because employees who are out
must be backfilled, usually on
overtime,” Foye said at the July
MTA board meeting.
“Low levels of availability [are]
largely the result of contractual
math creating lower levels of
availability and correspondingly
high and growing levels of over-
time,” he said.TWU officials called Foye’s
comments “callous, careless, or
both.”
Labor leaders threw blame back
at the agency for failing to protect
workers from assaults and other
injury-related incidents — the rea-
son for about 11 percent of the
work days missed.
“All workers, regardless of occu-
pation, deserve a healthy work-life
balance,” TWU Local 100 Vice
President Eric Loegel said at the
time. “We do dirty, dangerous,
safety-sensitive jobs and need suf-
ficient time to recover.”
The MTA’s overtime costs have
been in the spotlight for months
since the Empire Center revealed
that some Long Island Rail Road
workers last year received stag-
gering sums of money while log-
ging seemingly impossible over-
time hours.
The MTA and TWU both de-
clined to provide additional com-
ment on the new data.
[email protected]NYC Transit workers’ 54 days off
Nice work
The average NYC Transit bus
and subway worker was away
from work for 54 days last year,
according to internal data. Here’s
how it breaks down:*Including jury duty, suspensions, military leaveVacation days: 18
Holidays: 8
Paid sick days: 9
Unpaid sick leave: 5
Workers’-comp days: 6
Paid training days: 4
Miscellaneous* other days: 4
OFF
THE
RAIL$
OFFOFFOFFOFFOFFOFFOFFOFF
THE THE THE THE THE THE THE
RAILRAILRAILRAILRAILRAILRAIL
OFFOFFOFF
titled to nine public
holidays — and, after
one year of service,
their birthdays.
$$Post photo composite