Some BART workers are nearly tripling their salary with overtime pay

A BART conductor looks to see that all passengers have boarded the train at the Daly City BART stop in Daly City, California, on Monday, April 11, 2016. A BART conductor looks to see that all passengers have boarded the train at the Daly City BART stop in Daly City, California, on Monday, April 11, 2016. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Some BART workers are nearly tripling their salary with overtime pay 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A recent review of the 2015 annual incomes of BART's workers has revealed that some employees — particularly those involved with construction and repairs — are making almost triple their salary in overtime pay.

CBS San Francisco obtained 2015's employee compensation data and unveiled some startling numbers. One police officer, for instance, had the salary of $96,000 but brought in an additional $170,000 in overtime money.

Another police lieutenant with a base salary of $130,500 received an extra $69,655. A senior police officer making around $103,000 doubled his salary with overtime pay of $100,500.

Even more extra cash went to workers who specialize in repairs.

A system service worker with the base pay of $60,800, for example, walked away with more than $120,000 in overtime, and an elevator and escalator worker who makes $77,100 per year tacked on an incredible $140,000.

And these are not isolated cases. Just a glance at the data suggests that the majority of employees received at least a thousand in overtime pay and oftentimes more.

BART, however, insists that this pay is necessary to keep the stations and trains running smoothly and safely.

"Well, really, what this is, is our system is an aging system," BART spokesperson Alicia Trost says. "When we shut down the tracks last year with the Transbay Tube all those workers are getting paid overtime working 16-hour days so we can rebuild our system and have the least amount of impact to our riders."

UPDATE: BART has issued the following statement:

If we didn't have staff working overtime, equipment reliability would go down, less trains would be available for service, stations and trains would be more dirty and the overall BART experience would take a hit.

We try to balance the right level of staffing and overtime. Hiring more employees would cost more than paying overtime. Overtime allows you to distribute the resources in larger amounts when needed but scale back when appropriate.

Our budget is balanced because we use the savings from vacant positions to help pay the cost of the overtime.

The General Manager set up a taskforce this year to examine overtime.