Turnpike Authority ordered to pay retired worker

"This is a man who gave his life to the Turnpike Authority for 28 years,'' she said...now seriously all that people who work for the pike do is the same thing a cashier at wal-mart does (take money and make change). and when people usually say "gave his life" it usually means that the person died while doing their job and since this guy is still breathing i think that statement is a little bit of a stretch.

Private sector firms do NOT pay employees for unused sick time.

Yet another example of waste, abuse, and the cushy job one gets when working for the state. Disgraceful.

"now seriously all that people who work for the pike do is the same thing a cashier at wal-mart does (take money and make change)"
Clearly, you are illiterate. The article states that he was an engineer, not a toll collector. Your cynicism does not evince intelligence, only that you think you're intelligent.

Do you see the difference between the cashier and engineer? Read the article.

Contracts are meant to be adhered to. Changing the terms, after you get what you want, is wrong. It's too bad he had to go to court to get what was promised to him, in writing. If the TA didn't like the terms of the contract, they shouldn't have accepted it in the first place. Crooked bastards.

annoyed: I don't think he was a toll taker. They do have other employees.

The court was correct in its decision. It's a sweetheart benefit that should be revoked, but you can't take it away from a career employee who has been working for 28 years on the assumption that he'll get it.

Actually it says he was an engineer.
So it's more likely he was involved in issues with bridges, lighting, new off-ramps and fast-line booths...

annoyed with hacks-
who isn't annoyed but if you read the article more carefully it states he was an engineer - not a toll collector. Also, if he was out sick only 1.5 days in 21 years that's pretty impressive, even in the private sector - not at all "hack" behavior. Wonder if you could make a comparable claim...

"Private sector firms do NOT pay employees for unused sick time."
You are correct most do not. But Private Sectior firms MUST pay employees everthing they AGREED to pay employees and so must the Pike.

Ummm... doing the math... 2588 hours/20 years (1975 to 1996) is 129.4 sick hours banked per year. Divide that by 8 hour days and you have the Turnpike Authority giving this man 16 paid bankable sick days a year... are you freaking kidding me?!?! Who gets that?!?! This state is absolutely ridiculous.

It's a contract, and they tried to renege. It doesn't matter if it's typical in the corporate world to pay retirees for unused sick days, it only matters whether it was promised.

I work for a private sector company that pays off unused sick leave at the end of each year.

But is it possible to tell the difference between a working Pike employee and a retired Pike employee?

My company does, we get paid each year for any unused sick time, and that unused time goes into a sick bank for future use.

Bad management, bad contractual obligations. What else is new with the Pike.

The question that comes to my mind is not weather or not he should receive the sick benifit (he should as per the contract), but only 1.5 sick days in 21 years???
Right!

Private sector employees gets bonus money and profit sharing. What about all these CEO's who get millions while their companies ask for government welfare? If you sign an employment contract, aren't you suppose to get what is coming to you? All these ignorant people just think state employees are hacks? If you were in the private sector and didn't get your negotiated benefits, all of you would be the first ones crying!

frank, math, hacks and harry sound like bitter people who couldnt get a government job if they had a relative on the interview panel.

Regardless of his "loyal service" this travesty of selling back sick days is farce. Granted if it was contracted it should be paid but these farcicle Perks need to be stemmed and eliminated.

Old Poor Richard says the Turnpike Authority tried to renege on a promise to pay for the unused sick time...

Ummm - didn't the Turnpike Authority also renege on their promise to take down the tolls when the original Bonds for building the Pike were paid off?

I used to work for a private-sector company that gave employees a bonus if they had a certain amount of sick time at the end of the quarter.

Regardless of his "loyal service" this travesty of selling back sick days is farce. Granted if it was contracted it should be paid but these farcicle Perks need to be stemmed and eliminated.

I wonder where the out rage is when a "private sector" CEO bankrupts his compnay and then gets a multimillion dollar buy out after a few years at the helm. A contract is a contract and most of these benefits are union driven. The so-called sick leave benefit may very well be in place rather than a higher take home pay. When negotiating you get what you can...some years it is base pay and others it may be upping the benefits. The state wasted more money trying to defend their refusal to follow their own contract stipulations.

Regardless of his "loyal service" this travesty of selling back sick days is farce. Granted if it was contracted it should be paid but these farcicle Perks need to be stemmed and eliminated.

The Gas Tax does not have employees.. take down the tolls and replace it with a gas tax.