Naptime isn’t just for preschoolers.
The Lower East Side subway-maintenance facility where transit workers were found sleeping on the job has long been a popular snoozing spot for employees charged with monitoring crucial underground ventilation.
“It’s incumbent on managers to ensure that all are performing their functions,” said Inspector General Barry Kluger.
The trouble there dates back at least two years, when supervisor Edward Billitteri and mechanic Freddie Wright were caught sleeping in a locked office and on a bench when agents from the MTA Inspector General’s Office raided the facility.
The IG demanded that NYC Transit brass immediately rectify the problem, but they, too, appeared to be asleep at the controls.
A Post reporter found three transit employees sleeping on the job last week, when they should have been fixing subway hydraulics at the same facility — accessed through a hole in the sidewalk next to the Angelika Film Center on Houston Street.
Transit brass admitted they still haven’t fully addressed the issue.
“It is an ongoing process,” said spokesman Paul Fleuranges. “We are making a concerted effort to make sure employees are not stealing time by sleeping on the job.”
The MTA tried to fire Billitteri after he was caught napping, but union work rules dictated he go to an arbitrator — who handed him a 30-day suspension.
Not only was Billitteri catching some winks, but investigators also found he was moonlighting as an electrician for 20 years without MTA knowledge and instructed a subordinate to falsify hourly records.
“In light of the New York Post’s findings, it is obvious that more supervision and attention to this issue is necessary,” Kluger said.