Three Long Island Rail Road dispatchers were caught napping on the job, and two were disciplined, the New York Post reports.
Investigators from the MTA inspector general's office entered the office of the men at 3 a.m. on Oct. 1, after getting a tip that they were regularly sleeping on the job and would yell at anyone who disturbed them, according to a report released on Thursday.
Two of the dispatchers, one of whom was a supervisor, didn't wake up when the investigators entered the room to find the lights out and the three covered with blankets. The third dispatcher was found sitting in a chair, and it could not be proved he was asleep, though investigators said it seemed as though he was.
"It certainly seems likely that he, too, was asleep given the dark room," IG Carolyn Pokorny said in the report, adding that they "would not have been capable of responding to dispatching requests via email while asleep and we question whether they would have heard dispatch calls."
According to the report, the investigators "used a flashlight to observe the supervisor and the dispatcher each sleeping across 2 office chairs at their desk." Both had blankets, and the supervisor had tied his two office chairs together, the report said.
Pokorny's office recommended discipline for all three, up to termination for the two who were confirmed to be asleep. Ultimately, the two who were asleep were suspended for 15 days for the supervisor and 10 days for the other dispatcher. The third received no discipline since it could not be confirmed whether he had been sleeping or was merely "in a position of sleep."
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