By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Nearly 500 MTA workers get to keep their jobs, at least until next week, after a judge issued an 11th-hour ruling blocking a round of layoffs scheduled to take effect Thursday morning.
About 475 station agents were to turn in their badges Thursday morning, but a last minute injunction issued by Judge Alice Schlesinger postponed the cuts until after a hearing Monday.
"Every one is ecstatic," MTA worker Jhesky Vega, who was scheduled to lose his job, told the Daily News.
Schelsinger's ruling, issued after MTA and transit union lawyers haggled over the layoffs in the judge's living room Wednesday night, said that the layoffs had "not been done pursuant to the proper procedure," the New York Post reported.
The agency expects to save $21 million by dumping the agents, the Post said. A second round of layoffs, including administrative posts, would make the total expected savings $65 million, the New York Times reported.
Both sides acknowledge that the judge's action only delays the layoffs, not eliminate them, the Times said.
The head of the MTA workers union said the planned layoffs would put straphangers in danger.
“The station agents provide a vital layer of security, and when you remove that vital layer of security, the potential for riders to find themselves in danger increases dramatically,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen told the News.
The paper added that even deeper cuts will be announced Thursday, according to MTA Chairman Jay Walder, as the agency looks to close its $750 million budget gap.
