Local News
“If anyone is found to have been intentionally misreporting their time or misusing taxpayer dollars, they will be held accountable.”
The MassDOT District 6 office. Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe
Seven Massachusetts Department of Transportation employees are on leave after a months-long investigation by Boston News 25 found that high-earning employees allegedly falsified timesheets to cash in on overtime.
A spokesperson for MassDOT said it launched an investigation, and the seven employees have been placed on administrative leave.
”MassDOT takes any allegation of improperly reporting time worked extremely seriously. Not only do we expect all employees to accurately report time worked and supervisors to properly review and certify time records — it’s the law,” a MassDOT spokesperson said. “If anyone is found to have been intentionally misreporting their time or misusing taxpayer dollars, they will be held accountable.”
After a 231-day undercover investigation, Boston 25 News reported that the top-earning highway maintenance workers in Massachusetts are concentrated at the MassDOT District Six facility in Charlestown.
The reporters logged vehicle departure times from the Charlestown yard and compared them to timesheets obtained through public record requests, finding that multiple top-earners left in their personal vehicles hours before their shifts ended.
Boston News 25 used the employee’s vehicles as a way to track their actual hours worked, including watching the cars leave the yard and observing their vehicles outside of their homes.
Highway Maintenance Worker II employees were at the center of Boston 25 News’s investigation, including the highest earner of that group. In 2025, his base salary was about $84,000, but he earned $149,000 in overtime.
According to the report, when that man claimed he was working overtime until 3:30 p.m., his car left the facility before noon on multiple days. Another employee, who earned $137,000 worth of overtime, was similarly seen leaving in his vehicle, while his timesheet said he was on the clock.
Another employee, who submitted nearly 1,700 hours of overtime last year, earning an additional $100,000, was also seen leaving the facility in his vehicle on six different occasions.
The timesheets indicated overtime for tasks like weed wacking, pouring a “bench pad,” organizing the yard, and washing and cleaning trucks.
When confronted by reporters, some of the workers declined to comment, while another, who earned $97,000 in overtime last year, said he does work the hours he recorded.
“25 Investigates never witnessed an employee return to the yard after departing in their personal vehicle,” the report said. “Yet, according to agency records, every single overtime hour was approved by a supervisor.”
Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.
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