Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 8142
 SECOND DIVISION Docket No. 7510
 2-WT-CIA-179



Parties to Dispute: ( (Carmen)
 (
 ( The Washington Terminal Company

 Dispute: Claim of Employes:



Findines:
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.

The facts in this case overlap ir1th the events of a Board action (Award 7251) on an earlier removal of the Claimant for reasons not germane here: In 197'7, the Carrier was aciparently ordered to return the grievant to service; in the process of doing so, the Carrier required production, by the Claimant, of his police record, if any. The Claimant had been hired some trio years prior, at which time he had responded in the negative to a question:
 Form 1 Award No. 8142
Page 2 Docket No. 7810
 2-WT-C'~i-' 79

 "have you ever been convicted of a criminal offense other than a minor traffic violation?" (The application form carried a warning that rejection of employment or dismissal from service could occur if false information is provided; the statement ,,ias imaedia rely above the job candidate's signa Lure line.) At the time of his hire in 1975, the Claimant eras to have produced such a police record, if any, but the "7ashington, D. C., Police Department was not honoring such request for information (due to lack of ability to be responsive).

 In 1977, the Claimant secured a copy of such record and presented it to the Carrier which sho,,,v:ed the following:




Essentially, the dispositions indicated that the Claimant forfeited bonds (paid and failed to contest) for the Disorderly Conduct charges; the robbery charge ("Robb. Snatch") eras shown to have been disposed of by im?G^-. :_ ti on of a sentence which vras sus-)ended ("I.S.S."). Post the Claimant's removal, it ,;as demonstrated that the char1ce for robbery was actually dismissed and that the Police Department's records were in error. (The Organization points out that a warning of such pc tential error was written into the Police form from whic;z such data was extracted in the first place.)

 The Organization contends that the Claimant had no reason to believe he had falsified his application, in that he merely forfeited bond for the disorderly conduct -- ;;hich it contends are hardly criminal, and that the more serious charge was an error on the Police's part.

 At the outset, vie must separate the circumstances in this case from those covered under Award 7281. The record would ind_cate that the grievant ryas being processed to return to work in compliance with -that Order. It is well established that an e:player is not estopped from a review of an em-oloyee's past records by the passage of time, unless the parties have mutually agreed to some artificial tire limit. There is apparently no question as to the validity of the "Disorderly Conduct" charge; the question here is: Did the Claimant have reason to believe such incidences represented either "minor traffic violations "or something less serious? We look to the Claimant's own comments at the hearing for guidance in that regard (questions by the Hearing Officer, answers by the Claimant):
 Form 1 Award No. 8142
 Page 3 Docket No. 7810
 2-W7-CM-179
























We are hardly moved to conclude that the Claimant considered such events as minor traffic violations. A long series of Awards have suz)ported the Carrier's right to execute the clearly stated warning of removal in the case of falsification of an aonlication. The Claimnt's erroneous statement on the application does not diminish by time' his error extends ab initio -- from the time it is committed until detected.








Attest: Executive Secretary
 National Railroad Adjustment Board

 By _
    R 0 C, ma ie Brasch - Administrative Assistant


Dated at hicago, Illinois, this 17th day of October, 1979.