At the nation's largest commuter railroad, New York's Long Island Rail Road, safety comes first. The suspicious disability checks come later.
As many as 97% of employees at the LIRR are receiving federal disability payments after they retire, a recent investigation by the New York Times has found. You read that correctly -- nearly every single LIRR worker is receiving some sort of disability payment, not just conductors and track workers but some management officials too. Railroad officials, who are not involved in disability awards, now suspect widespread abuse of the system and are cooperating with state and federal officials in an investigation.
The suspicious payouts are coming from two sources. One is the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, a little-known federal government agency that administers retirement, unemployment, and sickness benefits for the nation's railroad workers and their families. The other are private insurance companies that sell disability policies to rail workers.
Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York state attorney general, has issued
subpoenas in a broadening investigation that now involves four different
government agencies. Five doctors who conduct physical exams for the
federal and private disability insurers are also believed to be
subjects of the probe. Two days after the first NY Times report, federal agents raided the Long Island office of the Chicago-based Railroad Retirement Board, removing files and computers. Since 1980, the board has paid nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in disability payments to LIRR workers.
The Railroad Retirement Board currently approves "nearly 98 percent of all applications it receives nationwide from
railway industry employees seeking occupational disability pensions," according to a statement by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the regional government authority that
operates the LIRR, the New York subway system, and the Metro-North
railroad.
The unusually high incidence of disability at the railroad might have been a sign of flagrant safety violations and poor workplace conditions. But the LIRR appears to have a good record on safety and recently won a spate of safety awards, including one for "Sustained Achievement in Safety." The railroad was also recognized for having the most improved employee accident
rate in its railroad class, and for substantial decreases in employee accidents.
Taxpayers subsidize about 50% of the railroad's operating budget. The railroad currently employs about 6,700 workers, a handful of whom may still be healthy.
Someone's being railroaded