Employee Protection Agreements Under the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964

GAO was asked to report on the Department of Labor's administration of the employee protection program under section 13(c) of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964. The Act authorizes the acquisition, construction or reconstruction, and improvement of mass transportation in urban and rural areas. Section 13(c) of the Act requires that, before any financial assistance is provided, Labor shall certify that fair arrangements have been made to protect employees from losing any benefits or rights and to ensure that employees will not suffer from a worsening of their employment positions. In enacting section 13(c), Congress intended to maintain the status quo of the employees, not to improve employees' benefits or labor unions' positions. Several congressmen expressed concern that, as implemented by Labor, section 13(c) was reportedly among the more costly and intrusive of Federal laws and that it may cause transit salary increases exceeding the increases to comparable workers in public and private sectors. GAO found that, in some cases, the transit authorities and unions negotiated section 13(c) agreements that included provisions, especially interest arbitration provisions at 6 of the 12 transit authorities visited, which were not necessary to maintain the status quo of employees. However, these provisions could be used in reaching agreements on future collective bargaining issues. Some agreements went beyond the original intent of the legislation, including provisions which not only protected the employees at the time of the Federal takeover, but gained additional benefits for the employees and the transit unions. These additional benefits have or could have increased some transit system costs.