LIRR president Helena Williams does not agree with measures the Railroad Retirement Board is taking to better oversee–er, oversee at all–disability payments made to railroad workers.

The federal RRB said it would immediately implement five changes, reports the NY Times, including more independent medical evaluations instead of doctors who are in bed with fraudulent claimants, periodic evaluations of workers on disability (you may find some playing golf at Crab Meadow), and better oversight of the board’s office in Westbury, which was raided by the Feds following the Times‘ article on rampant fraud centered around LIRR disability last month.

Williams thought the revisions unfairly single out the Long Island Railroad, despite clear evidence that the LIRR’s disability claims were absolutely off the hook, compared to every other railroad in the country.

“These steps would be beneficial toward reforming the board’s disability pension system, but they appear to unfairly single out L.I.R.R. retirees and do not go far enough to address what is a nationwide issue,” said Helena Williams, the president of the Long Island Rail Road.

Calling for an emergency meeting yesterday to address the ridiculous number of LIRR retirees living on fat disability pensions, LIRR president Helena Williams announced the creation of an “internal compliance unit…to work more closely with the federal government; additional ethics training for managers and union employees,” and help from Congress in the form of reform legislation.

Regarding “ethics training,” all LIRR employees will receive training geared towards “stressing the obligation of all LIRR employees as public servants to safeguard public funds and to comply with both the letter and spirit of the law” regarding disability. In short, don’t claim a sore back if your back isn’t really, truly sore.

The compliance unit will “act as a watchdog,” said Williams, and will review all correspondence from the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, which had signed off on all the dodgy disability claims.

Williams also encouraged all Dudley Dorights to use the MTA Inspector General’s toll free number to blow the whistle on fraudulent coworkers.

LIRR president Helena Williams will step to the podium in Queens this afternoon to outline “a series of reform measures” meant to combat the ridiculously high rate of retiring railroad folk collecting fat disability payments.

Williams will speak at 1 p.m. from LIRR headquarters in Jamaica Station. The reform plan is “aimed at making sure that only those employees who deserve a federal disability pension receive one,” says the railroad.

Williams claimed absolutely no culpability whatsover to the rampant fraud in a recent statement:

No one from the Long Island Rail Road or from the MTA was involved in the granting of these disability pensions by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board. The LIRR has no direct representation on the federal board that grants these disability pensions for the railroad industry nationwide.

We’ll see if she gets to hold onto her $288,000-a-year job.

[image: NY Times]

On Day Three of the Long Island Railroad/Employee Disability Scam Scandal (LIRREDSS), federal agents raided the Westbury offices of the Railroad Retirement Board, the shady federal organization that signs off on railroad employees’ dodgy disability claims.

What a scene it must’ve been–career LIRR workers standing on line with their claims, perhaps rubbing “sore” knees and backs for effect, just as investigators burst through the doors. The NY Times reports that they left with nine file boxes and five personal computers.

The feds were good enough to alert the media, it seems. Times lensman Uli Seit has a great shot of a stone-faced fed pushing a huge dolly full of files like a freshman footballer hitting the blocking sled. Seit’s photo reveals another photographer shooting the scene from behind the agent.

[Nice to see Mitt Romney keeping busy after his failed presidential bid…click on to enlarge]

The Times says Gov. Paterson is pushing attorney general Cuomo to blow this thing wide open, and has tapped Congress in the fight as well.

The raid came two days after The New York Times reported that nearly all career employees of the railroad — from 93 percent to 97 percent of retirees every year since 2000 — retire early and soon after begin getting disability payments from the federal agency. The retirement board almost never turns down a claim, and since 2000 has paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars in disability checks to former Long Island Rail Road workers, The Times found.

Responding to the findings, Gov. David A. Paterson immediately directed the state attorney general to begin a wide-ranging inquiry into disability claims at the railroad. On Tuesday, he called on Congress to aid in that investigation.

I think the true victim in all of this, besides taxpayers like you and me and poor bastards on fixed incomes and menial wages footing the bill, are the LIRR workers with legitimate claims, and LIRR workers in general–all of whom are being besmirched by this ugly scandal. Surely plenty of them aren’t claiming fake injuries for pay, and are simply going about their jobs each day like good Americans do.

I can’t imagine LIRR president Helena Williams, who in the most recent Times article asserts that the LIRR should divorce the Railroad Retirement Board and throw its retirement business to the Social Security system, keeping her job amidst all of thus. Despite her claims that she was powerless to fight the rampant fraud going on, it happened on her watch, and it’s not hard to imagine that a phone call to the governor, attorney general or local Congressperson would’ve gotten the ball rolling on changes to an egregiously faulty system.

[image: NY Times]

The Long Island Railroad was quick to issue its rebuttal to the NY Times’ brutal investigative story on rampant employee misuse of disability pay.

LIRR pins the blame on the mysterious Railroad Retirement Board, the federal outfit located in Chicago, which the railroad said it wants no further dealings with.

Says LIRR in a statement:

No one from the Long Island Rail Road or from the MTA was involved in the granting of these disability pensions by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board. The LIRR has no direct representation on the federal board that grants these disability pensions for the railroad industry nationwide. In fact, the MTA has asserted that its commuter rails should no longer be part of the Railroad Retirement Board pension system, and instead be part of the Social Security system, a move that would save the MTA millions each year if approved.

LIRR also said its retired staffers’ disability rates, which run around 95% of all retired career employees and cost taxpayers billions, was “out of sync” with actual employee disability:

The high rate of disability pensions awarded to former LIRR employees by this governmental body is alarming and out of sync with our workplace safety record at the Long Island Rail Road and is inconsistent with social security disability rates. The LIRR’s on-the-job injury rate has been in steady decline due to a sustained effort to make our workplace a safe environment. In fact, less than 1% of LIRR employees during the past three years obtained a disability pension from the MTA pension plan compared to the Railroad Retirement Board’s approval rate.

Gov. Paterson has vowed to look into the issue in today’s NY Times, and is giving attorney general Andrew Cuomo full power to poke around the LIRR and find out what the fuck went wrong.

LIRR says it’s happy to play ball with Cuomo and the governor: