This year’s winter weather has been generally mild with very little snow. However, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a weather event to cause transit delays.
The Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North, NJ Transit, and NYC Transit, among other transportation services, are subject to potential delays, outages, and other service disruptions – like demonstrators – that can make you late for work.
Most agencies have this information in their employee handbook or time and leave manuals. NYC Community Board 3 has this referenced in their employee handbook (page 35) :
a. Lateness Caused by Verified Major Failure of Public Transportation
Lateness caused by a verified major failure of public transportation such as a widespread or total power failure of significant duration or other catastrophe of similar severity shall be excused only after authorization by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
b. Lateness Cause Not Verified as Major Failure of Public Transportation
For a transit delay that has not been verified as a major failure of public transportation, an employee may request to have the lateness excused by submitting written verification of the delay from the relevant transportation authority.
Excused is not (necessarily) Free
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s, like, free time. It means you can use your annual or sick time without it being held against you.
DCAS addresses this in some of their Personnel Services Bulletin, like this in 410-1R :
“Upon satisfaction of the agency head or individual designated by the agency head to implement lateness policy, lateness caused by unforeseen transportation circumstances beyond the ability of the tardy employee to control shall be excused.* The tardy employee may be required to furnish proof of the cause of lateness. A request for excusal shall not be unreasonably denied. A refusal to excuse a lateness may be appealed to the Commissioner of Labor Relations, whose decision shall be final.”
“Lateness caused by a verified major failure of public transportation, such as a widespread or total power failure of significant duration or other catastrophe of similar severity shall be excused.”
Unfortunately some of us have been, how shall I say… (punished?) for making extreme efforts to get in to work. On January 26 & 27, 2011 we had a snowstorm in the city. Those who didn’t make it in were excused with no charge to leave balances. That’s very generous, but what about the rest of us that got in by hook or by crook? We should have, at least, received leave time added to our balances for our extreme efforts. This was the second time we were burned. The first occurred January 7, 1996 with similar determinations. Many of us grumbled that we wouldn’t come in next time. But, not to sound too dramatic, most of us working for the public good, especially in the public safety sector, would probably just suck it up and do it again.
Getting Legit Verification
Many transit agencies will now support “requests for verification” of delays. The Long Island Rail Road had this on a Twitter Feed:
It seems NJ Transit will do the same. I found reports that general MTA late verifications can be submitted through their customer feedback portal but the most direct portal by far is the one by NYC Transit Subways.
It is still up to your supervisor and agency timekeeping unit to approve the request for excused leave claiming transit delays. But, generally, it should not be “unreasonably” denied.
Questions and comments welcomed below.
