MTA employee’s earn 12 sick days a year but get disciplined if used according to a “pattern rule” that makes no sense.
Dear MTA,
You sent two letters to my home, one via certified mail and one via regular mail to inform me that I am now on sick control. According to you, I have a pattern of one or two day absences.
Let’s look at the word pattern. By definition a pattern, is the regular and repeated way in which something is done. For example, a pattern of absences would be to call out every Friday every week or to call out the day before your RDO very week. A pattern is not taking two sick days one month and then taking a day or two three months later.
We get 12 sick days a year. We work in some of the nastiest conditions. Not only do we deal with the weather, we also come in contact with filthy equipment, sick passengers, and the homeless who have some of everything. Tuberculosis, Typhoid, Fleas, Ticks, Bedbugs, Whooping Cough, Flu,etc. You name it. They have it.
Although we try not to, we are bound to come in contact with something.
In The Department of Corrections, officers also get 12 days a year. Officers are not to come to work if they are sick or do not feel well. If they do, they are unfit for duty and are written up. Here in the world of transit, you have to debate whether or not to go to work because you do not to deal with the backlash that comes with taking a sick day. MTA, you do not understand that every illness does not require a doctor visit. You do not understand that the work we do for you everyday begins to break your body down over time and if you don’t take time to stop, your body will stop you.
Soooooo MTA, I will not be coming to work if I don’t feel well. It is disrespectful to me and to my fellow colleagues. Sick control should be in place for those who have exhausted their sick time. Not those who have time to take and not when you want to put a new spin on the definition of the word pattern.
Sincerely,
Someone Who Works Their Ass Off With No Thanks From You
CHECKOUT OUR LATEST SHOW WITH Lloyd Archer
– Rymina Cheytan
Join the Facebook group “Progressive Action”
Follow on Instagram: ProgressiveAction
Follow on Twitter: ProgressiveAct
PROGRESSIVE ACTION MAGAZINE 
Without a doubt Conditions in the Subway are unhealthy.
I always believed in giving the employee the day off (via sick or AVA) if they are available. (Approximately 12 sick days, plus holidays saved and vacation)
That’s adequate because once you use it, you can’t ask for it.
Quiet as it’s kept, the majority do not abuse sick time
LikeLike
to add to this how can they put someone on Sick control while they was out on Workers comp for a year and half. smfh
LikeLike
I drove for 27 years. Prior to working for the MTA I worked on Wall St. I took a bus and a train to get to work from 1975 – 1987. I was hardly sick. Since becoming a driver in 1987 – 2013, I was sick often. The reasons are many. Forced to wear uniforms that didn’t fit properly, or provide much protection from the elements like sweaters that had sleeves up to 6 inches too long, made by slave labor in China, which I refused to wear being so uncomfortable in them. Sitting next to the front doors which are opened & closed God knows who many times per day, mixing the outdoor elements with the indoor elements, as someone else had said, being exposed to all degrees of public health and infectious diseases that the public carried on our buses and trains, is it any wonder why we get sick? I was on such sick control lists often, & had to go to numerous hearings as if I committed a crime against humanity. I started a healthy young man and ended up a severely over weight, arthritic, multi disc injured, sciatica sufferer because of the conditions we are all expected to function in! If you are sick, you are sick. If you drive a bus or a train under medication and you God forbid get into an accident, you are screwed. I went sick whenever I needed to if I had time or not!
LikeLike
When you’re in a safety sensitive position, perfect attendance should NOT be one of your golds. As a matter of fact, safety sensitive workers with perfect attendance should be suspect, not workers who call out sick. If you have perfect attendance, it means more than likely you came to work on days when you were, or were feeling, less than 100%. There is a good chance you put the public at risk, just to try and keep your perfect attendance record. I don’t admire safety sensitive workers with perfect attendance records. Instead, I question their priorities.
LikeLike
The sick control policy is a not win policy for the members.why do we have a policy that says if we get sick the day before or after our regular days off we invalation of our contract.Why haven’t this stupid been changeOur equipment breaks down,and we are humans ,what are we suppose to work like machines and our bodies don’t get sick and we are not suppose to get stress doing our jobs especially operators of buses and trains.This sick policy with us management knows about before and after calling in sick is a valuation of contract Any other day you take off trying to avoid violation policy, then you are call in for hearing for creating a padding of taking the same days off when you call in sick.this sick keeps us under the gun,not fair when we get sick.the sick policy is # 1 priority thing that need to be change.thank you #2 is bus operators seats needs cleaning, they never get clean.
LikeLike