Massport reins in pay for unused sick time

The Boston Globe reports:

The Massachusetts Port Authority board of directors decided yesterday to end the agency's lucrative sick-time policy at the end of the year, but to preserve millions of dollars in extra pay already promised to current employees.

The vote means employees, when they retire, will receive 100 percent of the cash value of the unused sick days they have on Dec. 31, by far the most generous payout in state government.

But starting Jan. 1, they will get only 20 percent of the cash value of any subsequent sick days they accrue, the same policy used by other state agencies. Employees on the payroll Dec. 31 will also get a sick time bonus that other state workers don't receive.

Governor Mitt Romney had called the old policy outrageous and extravagant and urged the Massport board to bring it line with the policy for other state employees and make the change retroactive to take away the higher benefit. Though he appointed four of the seven board members, Romney managed to win over only one in yesterday's vote.

"I still think the governor and I are right that the whole policy should be brought in line with the rest of the state," said Ranch C. Kimball, Romney's economic development secretary.


Board chairman John A. Quelch said the vote strikes a balance. "It preserves previously earned benefits," he said in a statement. "It modernizes and improves our benefits package. It establishes greater consistency with comparable transportation agencies and Commonwealth agencies, while at the same time maintains the authority's commitment to its loyal and long-standing employees."

For Executive Director Thomas J. Kinton Jr., the vote guarantees him approximately $428,000 for the 435 days of unused sick time he had accumulated by yesterday in his 30-year career. If the board had changed the policy retroactively as Romney wanted, that payout at retirement would have been slashed to $86,000.

You'll notice how "progressives" beat up on Wal-Mart but can't raise a voice to this public sector looting operation.