MBTA boss Phil Eng apologizes for pulling employee’s hair. ‘It was insensitive.’

Politics admin June 19, 2026 0 Comments

MBTA boss Phil Eng apologizes for pulling employee’s hair. ‘It was insensitive.’

Phil Eng,the state’s top transportation official, acknowledged Friday that his actions were “insensitive” nearly two years ago when he pulled the hair of one of his employees after a MBTA team dinner.

“The incident that happened two years ago is something that I’ve apologized for,” he told the Globe in an interview outside South Station, where he said he hadbeen greeting World Cup fans boarding trains headed to Foxborough ahead of the Scotland-Morocco match Friday evening.

“I understand now in hindsight that it was insensitive,” he said, adding he is looking to “continue to build an inclusive and a welcoming workplace” at the MBTA.

Eng, who is serving as both T general manager and the state’s interim transportation secretary, reiterated Friday that the November 2024 dinner was a “team-building exercise at a restaurant” with members of the T’s executive team and their spouses.

A T spokesperson on Thursday said Eng had an “insensitive interaction with one of his direct reports” and apologized. T officials said multiple employees had talked earlier at the event about hair and in pulling the employee’s hair, Eng was poking fun at his own baldness.

WCVB first reported on the incident Thursday, saying it occurred in 2024 at a brewery. Eng also appeared in a taped interview with the TV station, a part of which was released Friday. He called the incident an “interaction that I shouldn’t have done.”

Eng declined to name the employee when asked by the Globe on Friday, but said he apologized “shortly after” the incident.

“It was brought to my attention several days later,” he said.

Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesperson, said in a statement that “any claims of harassment, discrimination or retaliatory behavior are completely without merit.”

Governor Maura Healey last year tapped Eng to take on the second role in her Cabinet, elevating him after more than two years of leading the T during which he’s won praise from riders and politicians alike, namely Healey herself.

“In Phil we trust!” the governor said during her 2025 State of the Commonwealth address.

The dual positions have made him one of the busiest, and also important, figures in Healey’s administration. Healey has struggled to keep someone in the transportation secretary role during her first term, and it’s a notoriously hard job to hire for in state government. Healey has had three transportation secretaries over her first 3 ½ years in office, including one who resigned after just eight months in the job.

A spokesperson for Healey declined to comment Friday on Eng’s admission.Eng told the Globe Friday he had been in touch with the governor.

“I’ve spoken with the governor, I’ve spoken with other folks,” he said. “Everyone knows I’ve apologized.”

Speaking after an unrelated event, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll called his actions “insensitive,” but noted that Eng apologized for an incident that, even though it happened in 2024, “came to light . . . through the press now.”

“He’s certainly come forward and recognized that. And that’s the right thing to do when something like that occurs,” Driscoll said. “We’ll see what happens going forward.”

Material from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.