Top LIRR earners made up to $240G in overtime. Payroll records show how.

Long Island Rail Road work rules governing overtime allowed a train car repair worker to earn 70 hours of pay in a single day and as much as $36,000 in a month, on her way to making more than $239,819 in overtime in 2023, payroll records show.

The top three overtime earners' 2023 pay slips, obtained by Newsday through public records requests, illustrate lucrative contract provisions at the LIRR, where the highest earners regularly worked 24 hours or more in a row.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials, in emails, attributed some of the calculations to idiosyncrasies in their payroll system, though they declined multiple requests for in-person meetings to go over the records.

High LIRR overtime, driven in part by antiquated union work rules, questionable supervision and occasional cases of fraud, has long been an issue at the nation's busiest commuter rail line, and a source of frustration for riders bothered by rising commuting costs.

LIRR worker pay is again under intensified scrutiny as the railroad remains locked in a contract impasse with several of its labor organizations that could result in its first union strike in more than 30 years. Five LIRR unions representing around half of the railroad's approximately 7,000 union workers are asking for raises above what other MTA workers have already accepted, saying that larger increases are needed to keep up with inflation and the cost of living. A request by the unions Monday for White House intervention delayed a potential strike until at least mid-January.

To better understand how some rank-and-file union workers could earn multiples of their base salaries, Newsday examined the payroll records of top overtime earners in 2023 — a year in which the MTA reported spending a record-high $1.42 billion on overtime. Aided by complicated work rules — some dating to the 19th century — LIRR workers are among the highest-paid railroad employees in the nation, as MTA leaders have repeatedly pointed out in recent weeks.

There have been no accusations of fraud against the workers named in this story.

While the MTA, the LIRR’s parent organization, celebrated a reduction in overtime costs last year, plenty of high earners remain. In 2024, 259 LIRR employees made more than $100,000 in overtime, and three made more than $200,000. Across the MTA, 23 workers made more than $200,000 in overtime, 10 more than in 2023, according to a report by the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative Albany think tank.

Given the persistence of high overtime pay for some employees, Cam MacDonald, general counsel for the Empire Center, said he "must wonder what is going on with the monitoring situation" by MTA management.

Labor expenses account for nearly 60% of the $2.67 billion annual operating budget at the LIRR, which last year spent $214 million on overtime. To help cover growing operating costs, the MTA is proposing to raise fares in January, including by around 4.4% on the LIRR.

Top earners

The LIRR's top overtime earner in 2023, car repair worker Martina Eugene, whose annual base pay was $75,169, quadrupled her salary to $331,190 that year with overtime, according to pay records. On her best day, Eugene made $2,961 — the equivalent of nearly two weeks’ pay at her hourly rate.

It was Eugene’s eighth consecutive day working. According to the pay records, she worked three eight-hour shifts that day at double time and also was credited with working two eight-hour shifts at time and a half. That's 40 hours worked, but because of double time and time and a half   rates, she made 70 hours of pay.

The MTA attributed some of the workers' high single-day pay to its payroll reporting system, which can show several shifts, worked across more than one day, as having been worked on one date. 

Outside her Brooklyn apartment Wednesday, Eugene, who has retired from the LIRR, said she "did nothing wrong," and out-earned all her co-workers because she "was never off."

I worked through my days off. A lot of sacrifices. A lot of working holidays.

—Martina Eugene, LIRR's top overtime earner in 2023

"That’s how I did it. I worked through my days off. A lot of sacrifices. A lot of working holidays," said Eugene, who said she rarely turned down an opportunity for extra pay, unlike some of her colleagues.

"They said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Yes,’ " Eugene said. "Some of them had their wives or husbands to go to. I’m single. I had nobody to go home to. My son is a grown-up."

Newsday also obtained 2023 pay records for the second-, and third-highest overtime earners at the LIRR.

Junior Lambert, another car repairman, made $231,011 in overtime that year, boosting his $82,996 base salary to $330,591 in total earnings. Lambert made $2,983.90 on his best day, the equivalent of 70 hours at his regular rate. Reached by phone, Lambert declined to comment, except to say he worked "very, very, very, very, very hard for a lot of hours."

Eugene called Lambert on her cellphone while being interviewed by a Newsday reporter Wednesday. "Lambert, did you speak to the reporters?" she asked him. He denied talking to Newsday.

Yardmaster Peter Zoufaly had a base salary of $117,748, but made $342,739 that year, with $212,739 in overtime. Zoufaly made $1,943.89 on his highest-earning day, 37.5 hours at his regular rate. Zoufaly could not be reached for comment.

LIRR union employees get paid time and a half for hours worked after eight in a day and 40 in a week, and double time for hours worked after 16 in a day. Under their collective bargaining agreement, car repairmen are also retroactively paid double-time for their regular eight-hour shift after working more than 24 consecutive hours, according to the MTA. 

Unlike some positions at the LIRR, Eugene did not have any safety restrictions limiting how many hours she could work in a day, MTA officials said.

MTA spokesman David Steckel also noted when employees have been working for 24 hours straight and then are scheduled to begin another shift, managers can make the decision "due to needs of service, and safety" to send the employees home and still pay them for that shift. 

Anthony Simon, the head of the union that represented Eugene, Lambert, and Zoufaly, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, declined to comment.

MTA officials said Eugene, who was hired in 1999, no longer works for the LIRR. Records show she remained employed at the railroad in 2024, earning a total of $179,361 throughout the year, including overtime.

According to the MTA’s posted job description, a Long Island Rail Road car repairman "builds, rebuilds, troubleshoots, repairs, tests, replaces and inspects locomotives, passenger railroad cars and components" in accordance with LIRR and federal regulations and standards.

LIRR  president Robert Free told Newsday the railroad has made "positive reductions in overtime" in recent years, and continues to do so. From 2023 to 2024, the LIRR cut overtime hours worked by 255,000 hours, Free said.

"This is something that we’re managing," Free said at an MTA Board meeting in July.

MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber has recently criticized what he has called "abusive work rules" that allow some union workers to make several days' pay for minimal extra work. The MTA has said it's targeting work rules as part of an ongoing contract dispute with five of its unions. SMART, the union that represented the top three overtime earners, is not involved in that dispute, having already settled a contract in 2023 that included no work rule concessions.

Ken Girardin, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, called Eugene’s 2023 earnings "bonkers" and a testament to the need for major legislative reforms. That could include bringing LIRR workers under the state’s Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes, and targeting arcane work rules in contract negotiations, even at the risk of a work stoppage, he said. 

"The legislature is completely unwilling — Democrats and Republicans alike — to address the inefficiencies caused by labor contracts," Girardin said.

Philip Dinhofer, a Rockville Centre attorney who regularly represents LIRR workers in litigation against the railroad, defended union overtime rules, including those that favor employees with the most seniority. He said the contract provisions help the railroad retain its most experienced and skilled employees even after they are eligible to retire.

"That’s the spoils of survival I guess. ... You become king of the hill of the overtime market," Dinhofer said. "Ninety-nine percent of these people are good, honest, hardworking people just looking to get ahead, looking to feather their bed before they reach retirement, so they can have a little bit better pension."

'Rule 24' contributed to OT

Playing a part in Eugene's high 2023 earnings, MTA officials said, were the seniority-based overtime policies and other union work rules, including one unique to car repairmen that has long been criticized for letting them pile up overtime pay without doing much extra work.

"Rule 24” of the car repairmen’s collective bargaining agreement calls for almost all unfilled and vacant positions, including those left unfilled "due to lack of need," to be covered on every shift. So "employees are asked to work overtime to cover these positions even if there is no work to be done," according to a 2019 report commissioned by the MTA to analyze the high overtime rates.

A 2008 report by the MTA Inspector General’s Office called the rule "a classic example of a completely unreasonable, illogical and costly rule" that, when combined with others, allows the most senior car repairmen the opportunity to earn "excessive overtime, significantly increasing their pension benefits."

Steckel said Rule 24 "may have been a contributing factor" in Eugene's high overtime earnings in 2023. Eugene also acknowledged Rule 24 factoring into her earnings, but said she "always [had] work to do. ... Everything was legitimate."

Although Eugene’s highest-paying workday was somewhat anomalous, high overtime earnings were not. Even while not working most of May, Eugene averaged nearly $27,000 per month in 2023, and made more than $36,000 in July.

Addressing why Eugene's pay records credit her regularly working more than 24 hours in a single day, Steckel noted employees' shifts sometimes begin on one day, and last into another. As an example, he cited Eugene's pay records for Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, a day on which Eugene earned $2,889. Steckel, in an email, said the records reflect "2 shifts worked on Wednesday, and 3 shifts worked on Thursday."

It was not unusual for Eugene to work more than five days in a row, with just one day off in between work weeks. In her longest streak in 2023, Eugene worked from March 24 to April 12 — 20 consecutive days, or four full work weeks — without a day off. After being off on April 13, she was back for another seven straight days, records show.

Except for a 30-day period between April and May, during which she did not work and was not paid, it was rare for Eugene to have two consecutive, unpaid days off in 2023.

Eugene also worked, and earned overtime hours, on most paid holidays recognized by the LIRR in 2023, including New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving, during which she worked 16 hours of unscheduled overtime. She also worked another eight-hour shift at double time the day after Thanksgiving, another paid holiday, records show.

MacDonald, of the Empire Center, called Eugene’s 2023 overtime earnings "amazing" and the work rules "highly wasteful."

Reforms after fraud charges

In 2019, the MTA adopted several changes to address overtime following a payroll report by the Empire Center that revealed alarmingly high overtime earnings among some workers. The report triggered several investigations, and resulted in the conviction of four LIRR workers on fraud charges for lying about overtime hours they didn’t work.

Among the reforms adopted by the MTA was the installation of biometric time clocks that required workers to scan their fingers to record when they were at work. Because of COVID-19-related sanitary concerns, the MTA suspended the finger-scanning requirement months after being deployed in 2020 and didn't restart them again until September 2023. Workers instead scanned an identification card.

The LIRR in June said it had disciplined four employees who investigators said were routinely swiping each other out at time clocks to cover their co-workers leaving work early. Another LIRR foreman resigned last year after being caught using an unauthorized duplicate LIRR employee ID card to have co-workers punch him in and out of work when he was home. The MTA Inspector General's Office has said it is conducting a broader probe "into time abuse and fraudulent timekeeping records at LIRR facilities."

Ricardo Sanchez, who recently retired as general chairman of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 589 — the union representing LIRR electricians — said, historically, union work rules concerning overtime have disproportionately benefited workers from the SMART union, including train car repairmen. That's a key reason why other unions banded together to demand higher raises than those accepted by SMART, leading to the looming threat of a strike, he said.

Sanchez said he was "not surprised" the LIRR's highest overtime earner came from SMART. "The overtime rules benefit them," he said.

Newsday's Anastasia Valeeva contributed to this story.