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Slacker Subway Signal Inspectors Were Only Pretending to Do Their Jobs

Sometimes, your workload can be downright overwhelming. It’s a time-tested tradition to slack off on the job here and there, but if you’re a New York City subway signal maintainer or manager — which means the crux of your job is to prevent subways from colliding — probably not okay, and also a felony, to falsify thousands of documents claiming you checked the subway signals when you did no such thing. Alas, the Post reports today that this practice is old hat down in the tunnels:


On every line, a group of managers in the signal department forced maintainers to fib on the inspections by threatening them with punishments like loss of overtime, according to a six-month investigation by the inspector general of the MTA. Signal maintainers would routinely enter false inspections into their logbooks, which managers used to write reports. In some cases, managers would write a bogus report even if a worker refused to enter the fudged data in his book.”

It’s still unclear whether these employees will face criminal charges or not, but one, who was making over $100,000 per year, was demoted. Signal maintainers defended themselves by claiming new guidelines to ensure that subways work properly and don’t collide were simply too onerous. “Instead of five signals to inspect [in a shift], they would give you 15,” one disgruntled employee explained. “There’s no way 15 could be done, but they would say you had to do it. It’s like you think your car is fine after going to the mechanic, but they never looked at it.” Yeah. Work is hard.

MTA supervisors faked subway inspections [NYP]

Slacker Subway Signal Inspectors Were Only Pretending to Do Their Jobs