Someone’s Suing the MBTA Over a $7.80 Fee

MBTA Bus photo by Eric Kilby on Flickr/Creative Commons

What can you do with $7.80?

For $7.80 you can buy a sandwich and a can of coke at a lot of sub shops. It’s the price of an album off iTunes. At some bars it’s the cost of an imported pint. You can even buy a matinee ticket to the movies for roughly $7.80.

It’s also something you can sue the MBTA over if you’re a former employee.

Jeanie Williams of Dedham is suing the MBTA for being charged $7.80 for a copy of her personnel file according to a report in Monday’s Boston Herald.  The former train operator was initially told the files would cost her $20 but in the end it was just $7.80, still too much according to her attorney.

Williams $7.80 fee is now morphing into a class action lawsuit that could have wide reaching repercussions for the cash strapped MBTA. Her attorney, Matthew J. Fogelman, told the Boston Herald the MBTA is not exempt from employment laws and wonders how many former employees have been charged.

“Seven dollars for one employee is one thing. How many thousands of people over the years have been charged that $7?” said Fogelman.

The MBTA said they have not seen the lawsuit so they are unable to comment on it at this time.