“These are individuals who have repeatedly demonstrated pattern absenteeism,” Shortsleeve said. “When we have employees who consistently violate the attendance policy over time, we’re going to move them out of the organization and move new people in who can serve our customers.”

The workers have been notified and MBTA officials are working through the internal process to remove them, said Brian Shortsleeve, the MBTA’s chief administrator.

In a push to reduce absenteeism among its employees, MBTA officials are moving to terminate 27 workers this month for attendance policy violations, more than the total fired for bad attendance all of last year.


In 2016, the MBTA terminated 24 employees for attendance violations, officials said.

The transit agency instituted a number of policies last year to reduce absenteeism, and is now taking additional steps, some of which were negotiated with the Boston Carmen’s Union, the MBTA’s largest union, officials said.

One of the negotiated changes requires employees to work 40 hours in a week before qualifying for overtime, making it much more difficult for employees to earn overtime pay if they are absent any day that week.

“If you miss work on Tuesday, you’re not going to be eligible to start earning overtime until you’ve completed 40 full hours,” Shortsleeve said. “Which means if you pick up an overtime shift later in the week, the first eight hours of that time will be straight time, because you’ve got to fill the 40. We think this should provide a very strong incentive for people to improve their attendance.”

Under the old system, an employee could take an unpaid day off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, then pick up an overtime shift later in the week. The law, abbreviated as FMLA, lets certified employees take off unpaid, unscheduled days for serious illnesses or to care for a new baby or sick family member. It has been an open secret at the MBTA, the Globe has reported, that the way to get a day off with no consequence was to become certified under the FMLA, jokingly called the Friday-Monday Leave Act.


A study of MBTA absentee patterns showed that in 2016, FMLA absenteeism spiked on Fridays in July and August, suggesting the benefit was being abused to create three-day summer weekends.

Shortsleeve said the MBTA’s new policies have significantly reduced FMLA certification.

In a statement, James O’Brien, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589, said, “We have always agreed that these issues need to be addressed in order to improve service for our riders and we are pleased to see that there has been a significant decrease of FMLA use by Carmen’s Union members.”

The MBTA will regularly study employee attendance data “to identify individuals that may show patterns of misuse of FMLA,” Shortsleeve said. “And we can sit down with them, meet with them, look at their certifications, talk to their doctor. And make sure that people are not using FMLA in an inappropriate way.

“Our goal is to create an environment where attendance is valued.”

Mark Arsenault can be reached at mark.arsenault@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @bostonglobemark