New York bus drivers spat on by passengers take average of two months paid leave over 'assault'

Dozens of New York City bus drivers who were spat upon last year each took an average 64 paid days off, prompting New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to announce plans to re-evaluate their contract's definition of assault. The MTA said a contract provision that mandates time off for workers assaulted resulted in 51 spat-upon drivers taking time off. They made up one-third of the number of workers who took time off due to assaults.

"It's a very disturbing and humiliating experience to be spat upon," said Joseph Smith, New York City Transit's senior vice president of buses. But, he said, the agency would look at whether all such cases required paid time off. Passengers spat on 83 drivers last year, said New York City Transit spokesman Charles Seaton.



Thirty-two of those didn't take time off. While some drivers took one sick day after being spat on, one took 191 days, Seaton said. He said the contract allows workers to stay off the job for as long until a doctor says they are healthy enough to return. "A bus driver who has been spat upon, particularly in the face, should take as long as they need to recover," said John Samuelsen, president of the MTA's largest union.

"Instead of applauding us and talking about how outrageous is that 150 bus operators are assaulted every year, they want to diminish the work that we do and portray us as slackers". Whether the MTA will be able to reduce the amount of time workers take off after being spat upon depends on the definition of assault. A New York City Transit spokesman said the agency is consulting its lawyers on the issue.