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BART Staff Absences Affecting Cleanliness Of Trains

OAKLAND (KCBS) -- A recent BART board meeting revealed that riders take cleanliness seriously. In passenger surveys they have it rated right alongside safety and reliability. But the absenteeism rate of staff is prohibiting the trains to look their best.

BART's Operations manager and second in command Paul Oversier admitted the system was not meeting its goal on car washing.

"It's an issue we're going to try to deal with, but quite frankly we don't want additional workers. We need to do a better job of incentivizing the people that we have, to come to work," Oversier said.

KCBS' Bob Melrose Reports:

Oversier added that the absentee rate of those responsible for the job of washing cars was a staggering 46 percent. He estimated the legitimate use of sick time for those absentees is at a rate of 20-25 percent.

Oversier said additional help is being added to car washing duty, by temporarily moving other staff around while managers tried to figure out why there is such a huge absenteeism rate.

(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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