June 4, 2004
MARTA FY05 BUDGET APPROVAL CALLS FOR STAFF REDUCTION
IN BUS OPERATIONS
ATLANTA—As a result of the Metropolitan
Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)’s approval
of the FY05 Operating and Capital budgets that include
bus service modifications, MARTA has announced a reduction
in force that will affect 300 represented employees.
Beginning Monday, June 7 from 6 a.m.
to 5 p.m., representatives from MARTA’s department
of Human Resources and Employee Assistance Program will
meet with a total of 244 bus operators and 56 bus maintenance
employees at Laredo, Hamilton and Perry bus garages
to distribute outplacement service packages. Each package
contains information regarding their rights as union
employees, pension contributions, vacation and sick
time accrual, as well as services provided by the Georgia
Department of Labor. MARTA also identified a list of
companies who have employment opportunities for persons
with CDL licenses. The notification process will be
completed by June 10.
In addition, each employee would be placed
on a seniority call back list to apply for MARTA jobs
based on their seniority and their qualifications. The
last day of employment for employees affected is June
25. This is the first time MARTA has had a major reduction
in force affecting represented employees. The majority
of the operators impacted have less than three years
of service.
“These are the first steps we are
taking to ease the impact to these individuals. Although
we’ve been able to maintain operating costs in
the past with cost containment measures, this is just
a small precursor of what’s to come,” said
MARTA assistant general manager of legal Mike Sloan.
“If no additional sources of revenue are identified
for MARTA operations, more budget reductions may be
needed in the future.”
The MARTA board voted May 24 to approve
the budgets, which included bus service modifications
that will reduce overall operations costs by 15 percent.
The new bus service will be effective on Saturday, June
26, 2004.
