In an effort to address a critical staffing shortage, the MBTA held a job fair at City Hall Plaza on Thursday, hoping to fill roughly 800 open positions.
The move comes as The Federal Transit Administration orders the MBTA to correct ongoing understaffing and safety concerns.
Recent understaffing has led to longer wait times and reduced T Service for riders.
"I used to drive buses so I’m trying to get back in the field," said Lenell Weaks of Mattapan, who filled out an application.
The MBTA announced they are hiring across all departments and divisions, including:
- bus and train operators
- administrative support
- accounting and finance
- legal
- engineering
- labor
- IT
- environmental
- safety
“The critical jobs are our safety-sensitive jobs,” explained Tom Waye, Chief Human Resource Officer at the MBTA. “We’ve talked about bus operations as one key area that we’ve been sourcing for over the past nine months.”
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Waye added that the MBTA is offering competitive salaries and signing bonuses and incentives to get people on board.
“I think pay is competitive, and again, what we’ve tried to hone in on from a training perspective is that individuals aren’t taking a hit so heavily when they are in training, so we’ve increased our training pay.”
“We’ve increased pay, we’ve put bonuses in place for a lot of positions, we’ve expanded our $10,000 yearly tuition reimbursement program for employees,” said Steve Poftak, general manager of the MBTA. “We’ve added a lot of I think really great benefits.”
But not everyone agrees that it’s an offer worth taking.
James Aloisi, former state transportation secretary, told NBC10 Boston on Thursday that it’s not enough.
“The T needs to act as if it’s a crisis, and guess what, it is a crisis. So it needs to change the conditions of employment,” he said.
Aloisis called a collective bargaining agreement reached in 2016 "lousy," and said because of it, said that pay compared to the cost of living is low, and that all positions should be allowed to start at full-time not just part-time.
“We need to have competitive rates of pay with places like Portland, Maine or Springfield, and we don’t. And we need to offer people full-time employment, and we don’t.”
The T has also garnered a subpar reputation over the years, with some recent and severe accidents including the Orange Line catching on fire and a man dragged to death by the Red Line.
Aloisi said a safe work environment should also be a priority.
“If we can improve morale at the T and public confidence in the T, which both will take time, but if we can do those things, it’s going to go a long way with making people feel better about taking jobs at the T.”
