Overtime hours

As the contract struggle goes on against our employer - one of their demands is that during the cyclical upswing of the economy, the workweek begins to increase above 40 hours per week as our employer’s schedule overtime hours. If all labor costs were variable then our employers’ believes would find it profitable to hire a new part-time worker rather than pay an existing employee time-and-one-half for overtime. The greater the proportion of fixed costs of employment in the MTA compensation package however the more likely it is that paying an employee even at a rate of time-and-one-half will be cheaper to the MTA than hiring a new worker and paying the initial hiring and training costs.