[PRCo] Re: pat

[Fred Schneider]

Bingo.   I guess I did hit the center of the target.  So the problem  
is not the drivers but the administration for allowing it to happen  
in the first place.    If I were a driver, I too would be working my  
butt off if I were close to retirement.

Leo Ross or one of his underlings did a nice piece for Headlights in  
the 1969-1972 period (probably closer to 1972) about what this kind  
of policy was costing the New York City Transit Authority in terms of  
pension benefits.   It was literally eating the agency alive.    Of  
course the expenses cannot be budgeted in the usual sense and they go  
on for 10 years or more after the person retires.  I'm not sure how  
much longer ... average life expectancy at birth and averages if you  
have already reached 60 or 62 and have lived through the neonatal and  
teenage years are two totally different things.   It might be 20  
years or more that the average person lives in retirement.


On Oct 23, 2006, at 12:10 AM, <hrbran99 at adelphia.net> wrote:

> As for #1, pensions at PAT and also here at RTA in Cleveland are  
> based on the highest/best five years.
>
> As for #2, yes operators, mechanics, office workers, everyone tries  
> to get as much time as possible into their last five years to get a  
> higher pension.
> --
> HrB
>
> ---- Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
>> My questions would be:
>>
>> 1.  Are pensions paid based on a 40-hour a week base pay or on total
>> compensation during the last or highest so many years (usually three
>> or five years)?
>>
>> 2.  Are the drivers manipulating the working hours to squeeze as many
>> hours into overtime pay to increase pensions just before they retire?
>>
>> If the rules allow it, one can not fault them for doing it.   But one
>> can fault administration for allowing the rules that allow it.
>>
>> In my particular instance I chose to retire at a time when I had an
>> extra pay period in the highest three years used for calculating
>> retirement.   Was I wrong?   I don't think so.   I had the sense to
>> see what the sacred scrolls said and to manipulate when I chose to go
>> out.   One more pay period gave me a few percent more in the
>> pension.   I wouldn't blame the drivers any more than I blame myself
>> for finding the loophole.
>>
>> On Oct 21, 2006, at 1:18 PM, Jim Holland wrote:
>>
>
>