Metro Prepares To Cut 220 Jobs
Administrative Staff Targeted

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Metro plans to cut 220 jobs -- the most in its history -- as part of its effort to close a budget shortfall without raising fares or reducing service, officials said yesterday.

The cuts, representing about 2 percent of the agency's 10,600-member workforce, will be in administrative positions and will not include public safety employees or those involved in bus or train operations or paratransit services for the elderly and disabled.

Layoffs approaching this size are unusual at Metro, and managers will receive training on how to tell employees they are losing their jobs. The agency also plans to offer stress counseling to laid-off employees and guidance on how to find new jobs, officials said.

"This will be a difficult thing, and we want to do the best we can to do it right, to do it with dignity and a lot of humanity," General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said yesterday.

In an e-mail to employees late Friday, he promised that Metro officials would "do everything we can to help those who will be leaving . . . to land on their feet."

Managers have identified the positions in their respective departments, Catoe said, and agency officials are making sure procedures have been followed properly. Employees will be notified within the next two weeks, Catoe added.

"It is tough," he said. "It's a job I was hired to do, but I do think about this night and day, and it takes an emotional toll. We're talking about people here."

The cuts are expected to save about $22 million a year, officials said. The projected budget gap for the coming fiscal year is $116 million. Last month, Catoe announced that he was dropping a fare proposal that would have raised $64 million. The complicated plan was scrapped, he said, because it would have charged daily commuters more than other riders.

Catoe declined to identify the departments affected by the layoffs, but he said the cuts will touch virtually every office outside police, bus and rail operations and paratransit services. In effect, the agency will slash about 16 percent of its administrative workforce, which includes marketing, media relations, finance, human resources and the general counsel's office. Some cuts will come from unfilled positions, and some will be jobs held by union workers.

Last month, Catoe announced that the agency was no longer building stations and therefore would phase out its construction department and eliminate more than 100 positions as projects are finished. Those construction positions are included in the 220 agency total.

The layoffs are part of an ambitious restructuring that Catoe said he hopes will make Metro more focused on "delivering service to customers and supporting those on the front lines." In the past, many of those resources were devoted to building the 86-station system.

Catoe has said he plans to balance next year's budget through a combination of measures, including administrative cuts, a one-time transfer of funds from the capital budget to maintenance, and an accounting change that allows $12 million from unused Farecards to be counted as revenue.

Catoe hired Gayland Moffat Consulting Inc. to perform a comprehensive review of the agency, and its findings supported a decision to pare staff. The firm found "excess administrative and managerial staff," duplication of functions and an organization structure "out of alignment with priorities," according to a copy of the 43-page report. A new organization structure is to be presented to the Metro board Thursday.

The consulting firm also found that an unusually high number, about 21 percent, of Metro employees are eligible for retirement; that the agency has too many administrative workers and not enough workers in bus and rail operations; and that it relies too heavily on overtime.

The firm recommended hiring staff to reduce Metro's high overtime spending. Numerous mechanics, bus drivers, train operators and Transit Police officers have made more than $100,000 in a year because of overtime pay.

Overtime has a significant impact on long-term costs because pensions are based on the total number of hours worked. As a result, some retirees receive pension checks bigger than the base pay they received while working.

Catoe said he plans to address the overtime issue by beefing up staffing in bus and rail operations. By dropping the requirement that bus drivers start as part-timers, he hopes to increase the applicant pool and fill bus vacancies faster.

Because rail operators must first work as bus drivers, he wants to step up training of bus drivers so there can be "aggressive recruitment" for Metrorail, which has 200 vacancies, he said.

Metro officials have been working with representatives of two unions, Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 689 and Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2, to make sure correct procedures are followed in laying off workers.

Most of the affected employees will be eligible for 60 days' paid administrative leave, effective immediately, in addition to a severance package. Metro also will make available to affected employees a facility for job hunting, with access to computers, Internet connections, phones, voice mail and photocopiers.