“The Death Gamble”. The Greatest Injustice NYC Transit Workers Don’t Even Know About.
If you’re not familiar with what the Death Gamble is, you’re not alone. Many NYC Transit employees who choose to work beyond the point of their eligible retirement are unaware that they are placing their hard-earned pensions into a danger zone. If tragedy were to strike and you were to pass away while working beyond the point of your eligible retirement (25/55), your spouse would only be entitled to a lump sum of your last 12 months earnings x3. That’s It! Your loved ones would be denied the pension that you earned during your 25-plus year career.
The fact that this can even happen is a disgrace and this injustice needs to be fixed. All Transit Workers should be upset about this and motivated to see this changed. This is especially true for the Supervisors, because we find that Supervisors tend to work past 25 years of service and 55 years of age and are essentially “gambling” with their pension.
Legislative Bill S7224A is working its way through Albany right now and the TSO is focusing all of its resources and efforts into getting this important Bill passed this year. If this Death Gamble Bill passes, it would guarantee that your surviving dependents would receive your full pension benefit as though you had retired.
2024 is the year! We need all Unions and Transit workers to unite and get on board with pushing for the Death Gamble Bill to get passed. Failure is not an option. Especially when the pension you earned and busted your ass for is at stake!
President, Philip Valenti
