The Port Authority plans to reclassify two union employees as "currency unfolders" and to hire at least two people to fill vacancies and alleviate a backlog of uncounted money.

The moves come after spokeswoman Judi McNeil disclosed yesterday that there are barrels of money -- less than $1 million total, she said -- sitting in the authority's currency department, whose location it keeps secret for security reasons.

Normally, most of the money would have been counted by now, deposited in a bank and earning short-term interest for the financially troubled transit agency.

The authority has blamed high employee absenteeism and inflexible union rules for the problem. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents the 15 currency department workers, has blamed the elimination of six union jobs through attrition as a result of management cost-cutting measures.

Since the Zone 1 base cash fare was raised to $2 on Jan. 1, the number of $1 bills that the authority collects has gone up by 16 percent, increasing the workload for six union employees called "currency unfolders."

Only three of the workers were available last month, but the absenteeism problem began before the Jan. 1 fare increase. In December, only two of the six currency unfolders were available to separate, unfold, stack and count the $1 bills. Coins are put through automatic coin-sorting machines.

"Union work rules make us inefficient," Ms. McNeil said, because authority labor agreements make it difficult to shift employees from other positions or to use nonunion personnel on a temporary basis.

Jeff Davis, business agent for IBEW Local 29, which represents currency, other treasury and clerical workers, said if absenteeism has been excessive, nobody from management has complained to him.

"If there's a problem, I'm unaware of it," he said. "There may be some issues, but then again, maybe it's 100 percent justified. I do know people have been injured at times while handling those big barrels."

The authority's priority is to empty bus and trolley fareboxes at the end of each day, because there's only so much room and low security at the five division bus garages, the South Hills Rail Center and the Downtown Service Center, where passes and tickets are sold.

In December alone, Ms. McNeil said, the 15 employees in the currency department, also called the "money room," missed a total of 769 hours of work for various reasons, including end-of-the-year vacations, illness and family leave.

Authority officials said about two dozen barrels of money have not been counted, a backlog four times higher than normal.

The authority uses a pair of two-person crews to travel to its operating divisions to take tickets, currency and coins back to the currency department for processing. In December, two of the four IBEW employees were off because of work injuries, forcing the authority to use other people from the department to fill in and causing what Ms. McNeil called a "domino effect."

The authority has sought unsuccessfully in past labor negotiations to use one person, instead of pairs, to collect the money.

It also has considered outsourcing the job to private business, as many transit systems across the United States do, using banks to collect, count and make immediate deposits of revenues.

In the future, Ms. McNeil said, the authority plans to introduce credit card-sized "smart cards" for electronic fare collection, a move designed to cut down on cash transactions and fare evasion while providing accurate accounting and statistical information.