MARTA frontline employees to receive pandemic payment

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is providing a one-time $3,500 COVID-19 pandemic payment to its frontline and represented employees, pending approval by the agency's board later this month.

Employees who will receive the payment include rail and bus operators, mechanics, supervisors and members of the MARTA Police Department with the rank of major and below, MARTA officials said in a press release.

In addition to the one-time payment, MARTA’s 2,811 employees represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 732 will receive a 2% general wage increase in February 2022. ATU Local 732 and MARTA have also extended the terms of their collective bargaining agreement for 12 months, from December 2021 to December 2022.

Close to three-fourths of MARTA’s staff will receive the one-time payment at a cost to the authority of $13 million. The money will be drawn from a budget surplus that is the result of higher-than-expected sales tax revenue, lower-than-budgeted operating expenses and federal pandemic relief included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.