A plumber with the New York City Housing Authority made more than $300,000 last year in salary and overtime, giving him a higher salary than Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The worker, 65-year-old Vincenzo Giurbino, appeared to put in an average workday of 16 hours, split between 1,449 hours of regular time and 1,825 hours of overtime, according to The City. Employees at the financially strapped agency overall earned almost $100 million in overtime last year, and the agency’s overtime pace this year is already running almost 20 percent ahead of last year.
Giurbino earned this overtime despite taking off 42 days along with 12 holidays, meaning he worked on 206 actual workdays out of a potential 260.
The hourly rate for NYCHA plumbers last year ranged from $232 to $378, with overtime being set at time-and-a-half or double-time. Plumbers accounted for $11 million of NYCHA’s $98.6 million in total overtime last year.
Overtime at NYCHA is trending upward, increasing by 35 percent since 2015. Officials said last year’s overtime bill was because of weekend work-order blitzes. NYCHA spokesman Michael Giardina told The City that Giurbino’s overtime work “included responding to critical emergency plumbing repairs for residents (leaks, stack stoppages, water and gas service interruptions, heating, etc.) in Brooklyn and across the Mixed-Finance [building] portfolio in 2018.” [The City] – Eddie Small