Does Amtrak "Hire" White Collar Contractors?

[John Bobinyec]

Many large companies use outside contracting firms to fill in on white collar jobs - temp secretaries, stenographers and software engineers ... . I'm one of those. I can't, or shouldn't, get a job with Amtrak as a regular employee, since I am collecting railroad retirement. However, if they hire contractors to fill in here and there, then I could go to work for them, and collect railroad retirement, too.

Just curious. I expect that they don't.

jb

 

[amamba]

I would suspect that Amtrak doesn't, just because it is generally private companies that hire through these contracting firms.

 

[Ryan]

I'm reasonably sure that they do (or once did), at least in the area of IT.

 

[rrdude]

Was shocked how many "contractors" I came in contact with while dealing with Amtrak a dozen or so years ago.

Was explained to me that it was "an expense" as opposed to bloating payroll. Some I met had been under contract for multiple years.

Guess it depends on how the "accountant of the day" (CFO?) wants the books to look. One benefit is no RRR to pay....

 

[Bob Dylan]

As the others have said, contract employees are common @ Amtrak!

Washington is loaded with " consultants" and since who you know matters so much when it comes to Government contracting including "sole source" contracting, the same people tend to get hired over and over to perform specialized work.

When I worked @DOL I met lots of these contract employees, both in Washington and on the NEC, who had done, and continued to do, lots of work for Amtrak!

 

[Hytec]

I don't know about Amtrak specifically, but it is common for private companies, of which Amtrak is one, to contract for outside specialty skills. These skills may be required for short term (one month to a few years) one-time projects. Our company did it all the time, from draftsmen and fabricators to engineers in all technical disciplines. The beauty for accounting and personnel management is that these contracts are funded under a material budget, not a labor budget. Thus are not subject to any labor laws and regulations, or normal employee benefits. However, the hourly rate is generally higher than the full-time employee rate because the contracted person was paying for their own benefits such as insurance and sick leave. This practice varies for every company, so it's best to talk with various Job Shop companies in the Washington, DC area. Job Shop companies usually provide contract labor to private companies, thus have networks all over the country.

 

[Alexandria Nick]

I'd wager its incredibly difficult to the point of impossibility. You'd have to find out what companies have what contracts, get hired by that company, and then try to get moved to their Amtrak contract. Finding what contractors hold what contracts is a tough one on its own, but also managing to find out there's an opening on that contract? Couldn't be done.

 

[andersone]

I have experience at a government site with perhaps 3k plus people employed and perhaps 60 of them are actual "government" employees. The rest are contractors or sub contractors.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Either way it would be amazing to see what you could with the status maps and all the data you collect if you could work from "the inside".