WHAT HEELS: They’re Not Working On The (Long Island) Railroad All The Live- Long Day
A couple of weeks ago The New York Times reported that “virtually every career employee” of the Long Island Railroad - engineers, conductors, track workers, white collar desk jockeys - successfully applies for disability payments upon retiring - this, on top of their pensions. Over the last eight years, “about a quarter of a billion dollars in federal disability money has gone to former L.I.R.R. employees, including about 2,000 who retired during that time.” The Times notes:
The L.I.R.R.’s disability rate suggests it is one of the nation’s most dangerous places to work. Yet in four of the last five years, the railroad has won national awards for improving worker safety.
“Short of the gulag, I can’t imagine any work force that would have a so-to-speak 90 percent disability attrition rate,” said Glenn Scammel, long one of Capitol Hill’s top experts on railroads. “That defies both logic and experience.”
Said Dr. J. Mark Melhorn, co-editor of a book on occupational disability published by the American Medical Association: “No one has a rate that high - that just doesn’t happen.”
Two days after the article was published FBI agents raided the Long Island office of the federal Railroad Retirement Board and took out nine file boxes and five computers as part of an investigation for the retirement board’s inspector general, reports The Times:
Responding to the findings, Gov. David A. Paterson immediately directed the state attorney general to begin a wide-ranging inquiry into disability claims at the railroad. On Tuesday, he called on Congress to aid in that investigation.
And after the disclosure that dozens of the railroad retirees have been enjoying free golf on state-owned courses, state parks officials have also begun a review of who gets an Access Pass, which gives the disabled free use of sports facilities in state parks. …
Former employees of the Long Island Rail Road file for disability benefits at a rate three to four times that of the average railroad, records show. Unlike workers at most other railroads, they can often retire on a regular pension as early as age 50, allowing them to supplement that pension with tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability payments.
And now, NY state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, and the inspector general of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are looking into allegations that “hundreds of [LIRR] employees were buying private disability insurance policies knowing that the federal railroad board would declare them disabled” and improperly receiving insurance payouts in addition to their retirement and disability benefits.
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