Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No.7596
SECOND DIVISION Docket No. 7554
2-SFT-FO-'78
The Second Division consisted of
the regular
members and in
addition Referee Rolf Valtin when award was rendered.
( System Federation No. 114, Railway Employes'
( Department, A. F. of L. - C. I. 0.
Parties to Dispute: ( (Firemen & Oilers)
(
( Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Dispute: Claim of Employes:
1. That under the current agreement Firemen and Oiler, M. D.
Prendergast was unjustly dismissed from the service
of
the
Carrier on June 7, 1976.
2. That accordingly, the Carrier be ordered to:
(a) Restore the aforesaid employe to service with all service
and seniority rights unimpaired, compensate him for all time
lost and with payment of
611'o
interest added thereto.
(b) Reinstate all vacation rights to the aforesaid employe.
(c) Pay employes' group medical insurance contributions,
including group medical disability, dependents' hospital,
surgical and medical and death benefits premiums for all time
that the aforesaid employe is held out of service.
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, 1934.
This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute
involved herein.
Parties to said dispute waived right of appearance at hearing thereon.
The claimant, a Laborer with about two years of service with the
Carrier, was discharged for his unauthorized and unexplained absence on
six consecutive days in May
1976.
Form 1 Award No.
7596
Page 2 Docket No.
7554
2-SPI'-FO-'
78
We see no proper basis for reversing or modifying the discharge.
There is nothing in the record which would explain the absence. Indeed,
there is nothing in the record which would give a clue -- other than that
the claimant moved away -- as to his whereabouts either at the time of
the absence ox at the time of the hearing of his case.
The Organization seeks to prevail on the basis of the claimant's
absence at the hearing. The answer must be that the Carrier, aside from
sending a copy of the letter to the claimant's Local Chairman, sent a
letter notifying the claimant of the .pending hearing by certified mail
to the claimant's address of record. To hold the Carrier accountable would
represent a wholly erroneous switching of the burden.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
Attest: Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment Board
By-- -E'-- ru~.~1.c-~·
emarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant
Dated t Chicago, Illinois, this 12th day of July,
1978.