Metro union urges employees not to work voluntary overtime

Metro’s largest union is urging members not to work beyond 40 hours per week, in an apparent response to a overtime-related lawsuit filed by the transit agency Friday.

In a robo-call to members, the union urged thousands of employees not to opt into voluntary overtime beginning March 1.

Metro filed the suit Friday in protest of a policy that allows senior employees to earn double pay for working a seven-day week. An arbitrator ruled last year that the policy aligns with the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the transit agency.

But Metro is fighting that provision on grounds it doesn’t accommodate for “potential fatigue.” The agency says it has been paying “certain employees not to work on their seventh day” for safety reasons.

Metro employees who work one extra day per week receive time-and-a-half. But while the suit takes aim at the obligation to compensate employees who work seven days, the union’s message applies to all overtime, the union source said.

The call appears timed to add strain to Metro in the face of massive job cuts and perceived attacks on the workforce. Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld eliminated 500 positions last year, and aims to cut 500 more jobs in the coming year, as part of belt-tightening measures to fill a $290 million revenue shortfall for the coming fiscal year. The agency has relied increasingly on private contractors to perform track and maintenance work in the past two years.

The move also comes as Metro and the union are pitted in tense contract negotiations as they work to hash out a new collective bargaining agreement.

In a statement Sunday night, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said that while officials had not heard the specific contents of the call, “we would hope that everyone would agree that safety must trump service, which was the motivation for the legal action taken by Metro on Friday.”