The MTA announced Tuesday it will pay $500,000 each to the families of workers that died from COVID-19, as well as pay out health benefits to the worker’s spouse and dependents for three years.

To date, 59 MTA workers have died — with the exception of one Metro-North worker, all have worked on subways or buses. Thousands have contracted the disease, and subway and bus service has been significantly curtailed because of worker shortages, leading to overcrowded trains and buses.

Many workers complained in early March that the MTA wasn’t doing enough to protect them, by telling train operators and other workers who come in contact with the public to not wear masks because it could scare riders. Thirty-one days later as cases mounted, the MTA changed its stance and said workers need to wear masks; since then, the agency has distributed thousands of N95 masks.

Speaking Tuesday, MTA Chairman Pat Foye was adamant that the money was not a “line of duty” payment, the type a public employee would receive if they were killed on the job, nor were families being forced to accept this in exchange for not filing a lawsuit. The money, he said, is part of a “family benefit program” and would come out of the operating budget.

“Under the horrific, unexpected, and extraordinary circumstances of this pandemic, that is an appropriate thing to do given the loss of life that has occurred,” Foye said.

Three unions that work with the MTA endorsed this arrangement, including TWU Local 100, which had been most vocally critical of the MTA’s treatment of workers during this time.

“We can’t bring back our heroic co-workers but we can make sure their families are taken care of,” TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano said in a statement. “We will continue to fight in Albany for additional benefits to help the families left behind and to further honor our lost heroes’ great sacrifice to this city and state.”

Next week, the MTA board will have to approve the payments. The agency will also outline the expected costs of the payments. While the MTA is expecting $4 billion in federal funding, the full extent of the economic impact from COVID-19 is still uncertain. Questions remain when riders will return and what the loss of taxes revenue will be on the agency’s finances. Loss to revenue could be as low as $576 million or as high $4 billion the Citizens Budget Commission estimates.

“The MTA has never experienced a lengthy, almost total shutdown of the region’s economy in the way that they are facing it now,” Denise Richardson, Vice President for Research at the Citizens Budget Commission, said Wednesday. Based on previous recessions Richardson said, “The MTA’s fare, toll, and tax revenue historically, is probably in the worst shape that it’s ever been.”

The MTA also announced its employees would be given priority, including for coronavirus testing if they are symptomatic, at 50 Northwell facilities in the state. It’s also taking other measures to keep workers safe, like taking the temperature of workers and allowing rear door boarding on buses, and it has begun to install plexiglass at bus depots and facilities to protect workers from coming in contact with each other.