Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No.
8435
SECOND DIVISION Docket No.
8129
2-BNI-EW-'80
The
SCCOTld
Division consisted of the regular members and in
additio» Referee Ceorge S. Roukis when award was rendered.
( System Federation No. 7, Railway Employes'
( Department, A. F. of L. - C. T. 0.
Parties to Dispute: (Electrical Workers)
( Burlington Northern Inc.
Dispute: Claim of Employes:
1. That in violation of the current working agreement the Burlington Northern
Inc., did arbitrarily deny eight
(8)
hours holiday pay and
.5
of one hour
for regular assigned service. as defined in our current working agreement.
2. That accordingly, the Burlington Northern Inc., be ordered to compensate
Electrician Joseph G. Kartel at the Burlington Northern Iowa Diesel
Facility for eight
(8)
hours compensation at pro-rata rate for date of
July 4, 1978
and
.5
of one hour compensation at pro-rata rate for date
of July
5, 1978.
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 pivotal question in this dispute is whether or not Claimant was authorized
to report to work on July
5, 1978
after having informed Carrier early that day
that he would not be available for service because of an injury. When he later
appeared at the work situs at 2:30 P.M. about one (1) hour before his regularly
assigned shift ended, he was directed by his immediate foreman, William Graf to
obtain work authorization from the office. Claimant contends that he was asked to
get a late slip which, in fact, he did secure, while Carrier argues that he was
asked to obtain authority to work. Moreover, Claimant asserts that since he had
worked thirty (30) minutes before the General Foreman removed him, he was entitled
to eight (8) hours holiday compensation as per the terms of Section 3 of Appendix
D of the Nonoperating National Holiday Agreement.
In reviewing this claim, we agree with Carrier that Claimant wasn't properly
authorized to return to work. The foreman would not permit him to work until. he
received "authorization" from the office which only the General Foreman or the
Assistant General Foreman could authorize and did not convey an implicit under-
Form 1
Page 2
Award No. 8435
Docket No.
8129
2-BNI-EW-'80
standing that a routine late slip was sufficient. The clerk was not empowered
to render
such a
determination and
merely
handed him
a
late
slip on
the assumption
that Foreman Craf
requested
it. The
General
Foreman promptly removed him when he
learned Claimant
was
working and
lie was
the employer official, under these
circumstances, who could have approved Claimant's request. The Rules Agreement
does not preclude Carrier from withholding
work
from an employee who was previously
laid off for reason and Claimant acted to his detriment when he did not obtain
"appropriate" authorization. To be sure, the facts herein are distinguishable
from a situation where a person reports to work
a
few minutes late after normal
reporting time. But this
is
not the case before us. Claimant was not expected to
report to work at all that day and it wasn't unreasonable when his foreman requested
him to obtain authorization. The foreman's acceptance of a routinely issued late
slip
did not meet this test. Carrier
was well
within its grounds when it withheld
work from Claimant and
his
thirty (30) minutes work did not create a de facto
correlative right that entitled him to eight (8) hours holiday pay and/or .5 of one
hour for regularly assigned service. The record clearly shows that he was not
authorized to work on
July 5, 1978
and thus we must
deny
the claim.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
Attest: Executive Secretary
National Railroad
Adjustment Board
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
By
osemarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant
Date Jat Chicago,
Illinois,
this 21st day of August, 1980.