Long Island Conductors, Employees Sue Transit Agency over Lack of Protections from Attacks

Labor Landscape

Long Island, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Seven current and former employees with the Long Island Rail Road have sued the transit agency over on-the-job attacks.

The six conductors and one station cleaner filed suit this week. The employees and former employees said they were assaulted by train passengers and allege the railroad’s “negligence, carelessness and recklessness” led to the attacks.

Each of the federal lawsuits stems from attacks between 2021 and 2023, the majority of which developed during disputes over collecting fares, Philip Dinhofer, the attorney representing the five men and two women filing suit. The suits seek between $2 million and $20 million.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority, the agency over the LIRR, has been working to decrease fare evasion on subways and commuter trains. MTA estimates it loses around $700 million to fare evasion each year.

The railroad, the lawsuit alleges, has not done enough to protect employees collecting the fares. Union representatives said collecting fares has become a dangerous part of the job.

"They (passengers) don't want to pay the fare and then when the conductor does his job or her job, that's when the confrontation begins," Anthony Simon of the SMART Transportation Division said. "And it unfortunately leads into a physical assault."

Not only are the conductors expected to collect the fare, Dinhofer said, but they are expected to enforce it. The assaults were frequently by riders who refused to pay, he said.

"We've had some severe injuries," he said. "We have one person who lost his hearing. I had another person who suffered a traumatic brain injury from a blow to the head. And we had two women who've been sexually assaulted."

Dinhofer said his clients suffered a wide range of injuries from brain trauma, nerve damage and hearing loss to PTSD.

One plaintiff was pregnant when, on August 20, 2022, she was trying to collect a fare from a drunk male passenger. According to the suit, she was “grabbed sexually groped and/or assaulted” on the train.

In an affidavit, the conductor said, "I tried to walk away and he followed me into the next car. We were told that police would meet the train at Jamaica, however the suspect got off the train at Bethpage Station."

In her suit, the conductor said she suffers from PTSD, anxiety, depression and other psychological injuries, and is seeking $12 million in damages.

Dinhofer said LIRR “knew that the frequency of such incidents of assaults upon its uniformed train crew members was increasing significantly" but failed to provide “a safe place to work and/or safe tools, equipment and/or personnel with which to work," including by providing "safe and proper police personnel."

"There are measures that could be taken that have not yet been taken that should be properly explored by the railroad, rather than just telling people to disengage and to try and retreat," Dinhofer said.

He said options like placing officers on every train and giving employees “panic button”-like devices that would allow them to summon police, would help protect the conductors and other train crew members.

Transit union leaders said assaults on conductors and other train employees have been increasing as have confrontations with riders at end of the line stations.

In October, Myran Pollack, a 25-year veteran conductor, was one of the latest MTA employees attacked at work. He was stabbed after he told a man to get off his train when it made its last stop in Brooklyn. Police said the man, 27-year-old Jonathan Davalos, stabbed Pollack in the chest, torso and leg with a large knife.

"I'd never seen a knife that big outside of a kitchen. And he just started stabbing, and stabbing," Pollack told CBS News New York. "I looked down to my side. I seen there was so much, so much blood. I couldn't see the platform."

Since the attack, the Transport Workers Union has called on the MTA to provide greater protections for workers.

"We are irate, frustrated, angry, our temper is up. We want to make sure there's changes to the policy of the transit authority, policy changes from Janno Lieber, policy changes from the legislature to make sure this never happens to any one of our members," Richard Davis, president of TWU Local 100, said.

The union representatives said they want the MTA to have two train operators per train and to expand protection orders to ban violent offenders from the transit system.

"This is no longer a request. This is a demand," Canella Gomez, VP of transit operations for the union said. "We need MTA Police at these locations where these trains need to be cleaned out."

The MTA said it is working to protect transit workers and does not “compromise employee safety.”

"The agency has extensive safety protocols designed to protect employees and customers during active service in our 24/7 rail system," MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan told Newsweek. "If any employee finds themselves in a situation where they feel unsafe, they are encouraged to contact the MTA police for assistance.”

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