TRENTON — Toll collectors on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway are overpaid, unskilled laborers who get cushy bonuses and extra money even if they phone in sick or take a vacation day. Toll collectors are the backbone of New Jersey’s two major toll roads, and deal with impatient customers, inhale fumes and risk their lives every...
The Asbury Park toll plaza, northbound on the Garden State Parkway, in a 2008 photo.TRENTON — Toll collectors on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway are overpaid, unskilled laborers who get cushy bonuses and extra money even if they phone in sick or take a vacation day.
Toll collectors are the backbone of New Jersey’s two major toll roads, and deal with impatient customers, inhale fumes and risk their lives every time they step into the booth.
These two diametrically different descriptions of the job were given to the Assembly State Government Committee today as the state next week considers privatizing toll collection.
State Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson, who chairs the authority that oversees the Turnpike and Parkway, told the committee that even though 70 percent of travelers pay their tolls electronically, it costs the authority almost double the amount to collect remaining tolls manually.
"In a nutshell, manual toll collection is simply way too expensive," Simpson said in Trenton.
He said the authority is hamstrung by high salaries and "arcane" work rules, such as a provision requiring two collectors be at a booth at all times.
Toll collectors with six years experience make around $65,000 a year, and about 90 percent of toll takers are at that upper range, Simpson said.
A new private company would pay the toll collectors about $25,000 a year.
"While we feel a responsibility to our work force, we recognize a higher commitment to our toll-paying customers, investors and the public at large," Simpson said.
The local president of the union representing 293 full-time toll collectors and 370 part-time collectors on the Turnpike said the authority was given a proposal over the weekend that included more than $24 million in savings.
Simpson said Turnpike management was evaluating the cost effectiveness of the proposal and was not prepared to discuss its merits.
Franceline Ehret, president of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local No. 194, said salary cuts proposed by the union — including $6,000 per toll collector — would save the authority $9.5 million. New hires would get one fewer vacation week and have their salaries capped at $50,000.
Ehret also said the union proposed $8.5 million in savings by offering to get rid of the "separation bonus" – a payment to departing workers of $500 a year for every year of service.
Other savings proposed were: $1.8 million for dropping some perks, including a provision that gave workers a $70 holiday bonus for working an unscheduled day on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve; $1.6 million in reduction of overtime by transferring the extra work to lower paid part-timers; $1.6 million for eliminating sick and vacation cash outs; and $845,000 for getting rid of the $700 a year "uniform allowance."
Her voice at times quivering with emotion during what could be the last stand for current toll collectors, Ehret told the Assembly committee the Turnpike Authority has been unwilling to negotiate for three months.
She took exception to the image of collectors as glorified change-makers.
"Until you’ve done the job, you really don’t understand what it is," Ehret said. "You’re sucking in fumes all day long. You’re dealing with all kinds of different personalities coming through, and everybody’s in a hurry ... and it is a dangerous place to work."
Ehret cited the case of a toll collector whose booth was struck by a truck, trapping the woman under the booth.
The union filed suit against the Turnpike Authority, alleging the authority violated its First Amendment rights. The suit, which was dismissed by a federal judge today, contended that after the union spoke out against privatization, the authority removed a provision that would have given current toll collectors first choice on new jobs with a private company.
A vote on privatization is expected Wednesday during the authority’s monthly meeting in Woodbridge.
Union workers shut down last month’s meeting early and staged a 40-minute sit-in after Simpson refused to give them a date to negotiate the contract that expires on June 30.