With 50 Transit Workers Dead From Virus, MTA Increases Death Benefit to $500,000

While a growing number of states have expanded workers' compensation presumptions for frontline employees stricken by COVID-19, one public agency has moved well beyond comp benefits for some of the hardest-hit staffers. After 50 New York transit workers died in the last few weeks from the coronavirus, the New York Metro Transit Authority this week announced that the employees' families would each receive $500,000 lump-sum payments. The payments are the result of collective bargaining agreements struck between the authority and three of the biggest transportation worker unions in the ...