Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 8673
 SECOND DIVISION Docket No. 8506
 2-C&O-CM-' 81
 The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
 addition Referee Herbert L. Marx, Jr. when award was rendered.
 ( Brotherhood Railway Carmen of the United States
 Parties to Dispute: ( and Canada

Dispute: Claim of Employes:




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 aver the dispute involved herein.

Following an extensive absence owing to a non-job-related personal injury, claimant presented himself for work on June 28, 1977, with the approval of his personal physician. Claimant was given such examination on October 21, 1977 and wag approved for return to work on December 22, 1977. Claimant returned to work on that date.

 Considering the extensive period involved from June 28 to December 22, the organization filed a claim for time lost from work on behalf of the Claimant_ The record shows that such claim was dated January 31, 1978. The Carrier claims that the envelope carrying this claim had a postmark of February 17, 1978 and was received by the Carrier on February 21, 1978.

 The Carrier argues that the claim should be dismissed as untimely, under the provisions of Rule 35, which reads in pertinent part as follows:
 Form 1 Award No. 8673
 page 2 Docket No. 8506
 2-C&o-CM-' 81 r,_,_

Since the claim had to do with wages allegedly owed over an extended period of time, this type of dispute may be properly classified as a continuing claim; that is, the Organization has the right to file a claim within 60 days of the duration of the "occurrence on. which the claim or grievance is based", but any remedy must be limited to a period commencing with 60 days prior to such claim.

 The claim was dated January 31, 1978. It is a reasonable conclusion, however, that it was not dispatched until February 17, 1978, the date of the postmark on the envelope, absent any proof to the contrary that it was actually mailed earlier. The Organization cannot be held solely responsible for delay in delivery of the mail thereafter, but the earliest that the claim can be said to be "presented in writing ... to the officer of the carrier" can be February 1.8, Thus the claim, however meritorious it might be on other grounds, must be limited in its effectiveness to 60 days prior, namely December 20, 1977. The Board may not vary the effect of the clear written terms of the applicable Rule, and thus any remedy must be limited to the period from December 20, 1977 to tile date the Claimant returned to full pay status.

 As to the merits of the dispute, many previous awards have sustained the right of the Carrier to subject an employe returning to work from illness or injury to a medical examination, but many awards have also established that this must be done within a reasonable period to minimize the loss of pay to the employe. Suffice it to say, the Claimant here was subjected to a totally unwarranted length of time in which the Carrier made its medical determination.

 The consideration that the employe, during this period, was also making application for total disability benefits is not relevant to the claim.

Claim sustained to the extent that the Claimant shall be made whole for any loss of earnings commencing December 20, 1977 until his return to pay status.
                            By Order of Second Division


Attest: Executive Secretary
 National Railroad Adjustment Board

 By ,/
 Ro emarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant

 Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 18th day of March, 1981. .,rl'