Raise the wage

The former CEO Jay H Walder demanded to know the performance level of each employee specifically the blue collar - we wonder why he excluded the white collar. He did not give a reasonable or a coherent explanation. Why did he give the white collar a pass? Just imagine if Walder’s principle were to be utilized in the US Army, the  commissioned officers would be given a pass causing the US Army to go bonkers.

Walder’s theory was that he could set the wage in proportion to his or her productivity. He ignored the fact that in reality it is impossible to monitor employee’s job performance both because supervisory staff is costly and because many aspects of job performance (e.g., effort and diligence) are difficult to measure. The problem posed for MTA in this situation is that both hourly and salaried workers are faced with temptation to work at less than peak efficiency since the MTA cannot fully detect loafing or malfeasance. How can MTA combat this problem? One solution is to deliberately pay a wage above market level (do not hold your breath - only white collar will get that). Blue collar employees who are members of TWU Local 100 until now are working without a contract while they have been offered zeros which they have rejected. 

To motivate the blue collar employees award them a generous wage raise, their job performance would be excellent and they would work harder.