Affects RTO Staffers
Local 100 Decision Adds Vacation Day

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

An arbitrator's decision will give New York City Transit employees in the Rapid Transit Operations division an average of one additional day off each year, according to Transport Workers' Union Local 100. The ruling by arbitrator Richard Adelman resolves a long-running dispute over language in the union's contract governing the conditions under which employees may take days off.

Based on Daily Roster

Mr. Adelman concluded that NYC Transit had violated Section 3.1 of the contract. The clause says that the agency must approve a certain number of the daily vacation requests from RTO employees.

NYC Transit chose to calculate its mandated 1.5-percent minimum leave rate based on the number of RTO employees assigned to work on any given day.

According to Mr. Adelman, however, it should have been calculating its minimum daily quotas based on all employees who work in the RTO division, not just those on the daily roster. The ruling affects three RTO titles: Conductor, Train Operator and Tower Operator. There are currently 6,800 workers in those titles.

"It's always a battle to make the Metropolitan Transportation Authority follow the rules - you have to do more than just ask," said Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. "You have to back it up with action, including legal action. That's what overturned a 15-year injustice and got 6,800 transit workers the days off that they are entitled to."

Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for NYC Transit, said the agency was discussing the best way to implement the decision.

Basing its minimum approval rates on the lower number allowed NYC Transit to approve fewer vacation days for workers, particularly on weekends and holidays, when staffing numbers tend to dip and vacation requests pile up, union officials noted.

During its recent arbitration proceedings with Mr. Adelman, NYC Transit argued that its method of calculating the daily leave rate should be accepted as the standard procedure because it had been in place for so long without challenge. Mr. Adelman dismissed that argument.

Had Relaxed Policy

Local 100 acknowledged that the union didn't take up the issue until the late 1990s, when RTO Division representatives succeeded in establishing an informal arrangement with management that allowed for more daily vacation slots. But official figures were still based on the daily roster, allowing NYC Transit to revert back to the lower number when it felt it was necessary.

In 2005, the RTO Division representatives brought the issue to arbitration, and after a year of hearings, Mr. Adelman issued his award.

Local 100 officials said an average of 20 additional RTO members can now be approved for leave on any given day, including Saturdays and Sundays.