LIRR employees refusing to work overtime after MTA crackdown

Hundreds of Long Island Rail Road workers are refusing to work overtime shifts this weekend to protest the MTA’s crackdown on OT abuse, according to a new report.

The agency is planning to use its police force to monitor workers’ attendance and overtime hours — following a series of Post reports detailing off-the-rails OT spending at the LIRR last year as workers logged seemingly impossible numbers of hours.

But the commuter railroad’s workers are furious over the extra oversight, and are now refusing to show up for overnight and weekend work on track, signal and railroad crossing upgrades, according to ABC 7.

They claim they’re being blamed for putting in the hours needed to finish projects on time.

“Governor Cuomo commissioned all these projects, gave us a timetable, we’re getting them done, and now, MTA is blaming us,” one worker told the news outlet.

The Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers Union — which represents conductors, track workers and repairmen — claims it’s discouraging the OT strike, but the workers are spearheading the action of their own volition.

“They’re upset, they’re anxious. They feel they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t … We’re doing the projects, and it takes overtime to do them,” union boss Anthony Simon told ABC 7.

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