Maybe I should quit my teaching job and apply for this

[MM27]

And they complain about teachers being paid too much in NJ. I don't get paid for my birthday.
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/traffic/traffic_news/audit-excessive-perks-for-nj-turnpike-employees-20101019-apx

Audit: NJ Turnpike Wasted Millions On Perks
Updated: Wednesday, 20 Oct 2010, 1:12 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 19 Oct 2010, 10:27 PM EDT

BY LUKE FUNK

MYFOXNY.COM - Auditors say the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses. In one case, an employee with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included.

The audit says that toll dollars From the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were spent on items ranging from an employee bowling league to employee bonuses for working on birthdays and holidays.

It took place as tolls were being increased.

The biggest expense uncovered in the audit was $30 million in unjustified bonuses to employees and management in 2008 and 2009 without consideration of performance.

One example was paying employees overtime for removing snow and working holidays and then giving additional "snow removal bonuses" and "holiday bonuses."

The Comptroller's Office audit released Tuesday says taxpayers also paid $430,000 for free E-ZPass transponders for employees to get to work and nearly $90,000 in scholarships for workers' kids.

The audit shows turnpike authority employees got bonuses and overtime for working their birthdays and holidays.

Comptroller Matt Boxer says tolls are set for another increase in 2012.

"While tolls are going up, the Turnpike Authority is overpaying its employees, overpaying its management, overpaying for its health plan and overpaying for legal services," Boxer said in a statement.

Public money was also used to cover costs for a toll operators event that none of the authority's employees actually attended.

Another audit finding was that employees were allowed to cash out a portion of their unused sick and vacation days at the end of the year to circumvent the current $15,000 limit for sick leave payouts upon retirement. That cost $3.8 million a year.

Among the questionable legal expenses was a billing for $111,840 for a law firm's weekly internal status meetings that were generally attended by 10 to 15 of the firm's attorneys and two to three of its paralegals.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I see this quickly turning into a major debate.
Before it does I do think (Bergen County) NJ teachers are overpaid.

You deserve every bit of that money when your tested yearly & compensated on the grades of your students and not just showing up.

 

[mster425]

Wow, they pay their employees OT for working holidays and extra hours.

They also "let" them drive to work for free. The horror.

This has come up in PA too. I'm just not that offended, maybe I'm missing something. I would rather do just about anything than work at a toll booth, and if I want those benefits, I am certainly welcome to apply there.

ETA: In PA it's easy enough to avoid toll roads if I don't like where my money is going; I don't know about NJ though. And, I want to know what that guy/woman does to earn $320,000/yr. I want in!

 

[Tiggeroo]

The only way bonuses should be given is if they are earned. This means you either saved the company money or brought in considerable extra business or saved it time.
It does not seem unreasonable to me to give employees free or at least reduced easy pass. Many of them are required to drive the road for their job and may have to go to a different toll during their day.
I also have no problem with employees being allowed to accumulate unused sick or personal leave, if that is in the contract and then being paid out for it. When you offer this perk many employees still continue to take sick days as usual while a few will never miss a day in 20 years and cash out or retire with pay for six months. I believe those policies are in place not to make employees rich but to keep attendance higher.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I see this quickly turning into a major debate.
Before it does I do think (Bergen County) NJ teachers are overpaid.

You deserve every bit of that money when your tested yearly & compensated on the grades of your students and not just showing up.

Wow what a statement. If I am a teacher in Bergen can I not accept students in my class who's parents don't make sure they get eight hours of sleep, have a decent dinner or breakfast, don't spend half the night fighting and having the police at their house at three am, or the daughter who goes to the bar to bring her dad home? Can I eliminate the girl who's mom had her at 13 and then she became pregnant at 14? Can I only take students who's parents care if they do their homework? What about the students who's parents are illegally letting them work in a diner until 2am. You can't judge a teacher on variables they have no control of. You can judge whether they are providing good content in the classroom, whether they care about their kids, whether they are providing them with an opportunity to succeed. I was in a mainstream classroom today with 23 students. 12 of them were classified. If I was going to be judged based on test scores I would only want the good kids from caring homes. I'd want parents who come to open house. I'd want to know my students will have pencils and folders if they need them.

 

[shelly3girls]

Wow, they pay their employees OT for working holidays and extra hours.

ETA: In PA it's easy enough to avoid toll roads if I don't like where my money is going; I don't know about NJ though. And, I want to know what that guy/woman does to earn $320,000/yr. I want in!

I believe the issue is that they got paid OT for these hours AND a bonus. The argument is that no bonus should be paid if the employee was already paid OT. There are many examples of gross negligence (paying for an employees party as a business expense when no other employees were present, etc).

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Wow what a statement. If I am a teacher in Bergen can I not accept students in my class who's parents don't make sure they get eight hours of sleep, have a decent dinner or breakfast, don't spend half the night fighting and having the police at their house at three am, or the daughter who goes to the bar to bring her dad home? Can I eliminate the girl who's mom had her at 13 and then she became pregnant at 14? Can I only take students who's parents care if they do their homework? What about the students who's parents are illegally letting them work in a diner until 2am. You can't judge a teacher on variables they have no control of. You can judge whether they are providing good content in the classroom, whether they care about their kids, whether they are providing them with an opportunity to succeed. I was in a mainstream classroom today with 23 students. 12 of them were classified. If I was going to be judged based on test scores I would only want the good kids from caring homes. I'd want parents who come to open house. I'd want to know my students will have pencils and folders if they need them.

 

[mster425]

I believe the issue is that they got paid OT for these hours AND a bonus. The argument is that no bonus should be paid if the employee was already paid OT.

One example was paying employees overtime for removing snow and working holidays and then giving additional "snow removal bonuses" and "holiday bonuses."

Yup, you're right! I stand corrected. I still think they should get transponders since they have to take the TP to get to work... they are making a huge stink about it in PA though

 

[Hillbeans]

Not surprising....these "deals" have been the worst kept secret in NJ yet it's taken this long to shine a light on it. Shame on these people.

 

[barkley]

i wonder how those sick leave/vacation cash outs at the end of each year further impacted their spending when it comes to pensions?

my former gov. employer did'nt allow sick leave cash outs at any point-the balance upon retirement was just added to your service time for the pension calculation. HOWEVER-the big loophole in our pension system was how with proper planning on an employee's part, hoarding their vacation time could impact their pension. our pensions were based on our highest base earnings during our employment (so bonuses and o/t did'nt count, but vacation pay did). we could accumulate up to 3 times our annual leave without hitting "use it or lose it", and when you consider we topped out at 6 weeks a year of paid vacation that adds up.

those that knew how to work it timed it out so that the january of the calendar year before retirement they had 3 years of accruals on the books. in the preceding month they requested a cash out which did'nt hit their paychecks until january. then in that calendar year they accrued another 6 weeks which they waited, again until december to request cash out on to coincide with a january (post payday) retirement.

by doing this they upped one year's income by 18 weeks of extra salary, and the following years, by 6 weeks. this made a HUGE difference in their pensions.

the reason allot of public employers have those cash out caps upon retirement is exactly for the reason that pensions can be based in part on what's paid out through them.


btw-it did not matter how much sick leave you had on the books with my employer, if you were going to be out at least 2 weeks you had to apply for state disability insurance, and after 6 months social security disability. with either you had to pay back your sick leave for any days that were dualy compensable (they did'nt want people doing like my mil did-accruing 6 months of sick leave, not working in a job that allowed cash out, so having a doctor writer her out 6 months before she retired, leaving her position vacant and ineligible for filling until her offical retirement date).

 

[love2disney]

They got transponders to come to work but they are using it for personal use and the Turnpike Authority is footing that bill too.

 

[ndelaware]

Every company I"ve worked for paid me for certain holidays which we did not work, such as Christmas or Easter. If however, we did work on one of these holidays we were paid "time and a half" for working that day and we still received the "holiday" pay that everyone got. So we would essentially receive 2 1/2 times our normal rate if we worked on that particular holiday.

Sounds like a fairly normal business practice to me.