Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJL3ST"ty7,1VT BOARD Award No. 7161
SECOND DIVISION Docket No. '030
2-SCL-CM-'
76
The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Herbert L. Marx, Jr. when award was rendered.
( System Federation No. 42, Railway Employes'
Department, A. F. of L. - C. 1. 0.
Parties to Dispute: ( (C armen)
( Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company
Dispute: Claim of Employes:
1. That the controlling agreement was violated when the Seaboard
Coast Line Railroad Company unjustly suspended Caiman I. R. Banks
from service on September 26,
197+.
2. That accordingly the company be ordered to compensate Mx. Banks
for all time lost, September 26,
197+
through October
16, 197+,
both dates inclusive, and in addition, all overtime he may have
earned during the period of his suspension.
Findings:
The Second Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and
all the evidence, finds that:
The carrier or carriers and the employe or employes involved in this
dispute are respectively carrier and employe within the meaning of the
Railway Labor Act as approved June 21,
193+.
This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute
involved herein.
Parties to said dispute waived right of appearance at hearing thereon.
After an investigation przrsuant to notice given Claimant "to develop
the facts and place responsibility for your falsifying of your timecard",
Claimant was given a 15-woxki:ng-day suspension. Claimant states the suspension
should be lifted because the charges made against him were not specific; he
was not charged with violating rules of the collective bargaining agreement
but instead rules unilaterally imposed by the Carrier; he was judged guilty
prior to hearing; he was in ai:~y event suspended prematurely in violation of
Rule 32; and, finally, even if there were no procedural defects, the Carrier
failed to prove wrongdoing on the part of the Claimant.
After full review, this _3oaxd finds the Claimant's arguments without
merit.
Foam 1 Award No.
7161
Page 2 Docket No. 7030
2-SCL-CM-'76
Claimant was apprehended at the time clock on September 26,
197+,
by
M. H. Dudley, a Carrier Supervisor, and by Zv. I. Timms, a Carrier Special
Agent. As a result of this even`, he w^.u= -i~·en a notice of hearing which read
in its first paragraph as follow,:
"Please arrange to attend forrlal investigation to be
conducted in General Car Supervisor's Office, I:aowel Zs,
Georgia, 2:00 p.m., October 2,
197+,
to develop the
facts and place responsibility for your falsifying of
your time card at 11:
59
p.m. ,, September 26,
197+,
at
time clock located in the Car Department at Howells,
Georgia."
The first paragraph of Rule 32 -- Disciplinary Hearings reads as
follows:
"No employee shall be disciplined without a fair hearing by
a designated officer of the Company. Suspension in proper cases
pending a hearing, which shall be prompt, shall not be deemed in
violation of this rule. At a reasonable time prior to the hearing
such employee and the local chairman will be apprised in waiting
of the precise charge against him. The employee shall have
reasonable opportunity to secure the presence of necessary
witnesses and be represented by the duly authorized representative
of System Federation No. 42."
This Board finds that the combination of the occurrence at the time
clock and the wording of the hearing notice were sufficiently specific to
make the Claimant fully aware of the nature
of
the charges and the content
of the forthcoming hearing. While the hearing notice may have been more
artfully worded, perhaps with the addition of the word "alleged" before
"falsifying", the hearing was conducted in a full and impartial manner
sufficient to bring forth the facts involved and the Claimant's defense.
The hearing notice further charged the Claim~ant '-th violation of "rules
of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company Rules and Regulations of the Mechanical
Department". These rules axe not contained within the Agreement between the
Carrier and the Organization. It is well established that a Carrier may
promulgate rules for the conduct of employes that axe not included in the
Agreement. See Award No.
1581
('Daugherty) and Award No.
5987
(Dorsey).
Referee Dorsey's Award reads in ;part:
"General Rules promulgated by a carrier, unless they contravene
the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, are mandatory
standards with which an employe agrees to comply, expressly ox
impliedly, in his employment contract. Failure to comply subjects him
to disciplinary action.°"
Form 1
Page
3
Award No. 7161
Docket No. 7030
2-SCL-CM-'76
Rule 32, quoted above, provides the right of the Carrier to suspend
an employe "in proper cases pending a hearing". Thus, the Claimant's
argument that his suspension was premature is not valid.
As to the occurrence itself, this Board finds there was patent
evidence upon which the Cax^ier could properly act in regard to the
falsification of his time card by the.Claimant. Numerous past Awards
support the view that this 3oard will not interfere with the resulting
discipline, given certain basic conditions and proper procedural steps.
As noted in Award No. 6525 (Franden):
"As to the sufficiency of the evidence we must reiterate the
time honored axiom that we will not substitute our judgment fox
that of the Carrier unless the record reveals that the Carrier's
finding was wholly without merit. In the instant case evidence
was adduced from which reasonable men who were able to observe the
demeanor of the witnesses could have made the findings.-,"
A W A R D
Claim denied.
Attest: Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment Board
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
osemaxie Brasch - Administrative Assistant
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 29th day of October,
1976.