Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 12039
SECOND DIVISION Docket No. 11661-T
91-2-88-2-157
The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Lamont E. Stallworth when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood Railway Carmen/Division of TCU
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Southern Railway Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
1. That under the current Agreement the Carrier improperly assigned
Supervisors to enter repair billing into the computer billing repair system,
KATY, April 9, 14, 15 and 16, 1987.
2. That accordingly, the Carrier be ordered to pay Carmen F. J.
Thibodaux, Jr., five (5) hours' pay for each violation, a total of twenty (20)
hours' pay.
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 employes 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.
This Claim arose at the Carrier's Olive Yard in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Organization claims that, before 1987, carmen at the Olive Yard
wrote out all billing sheets detailing needed car repairs. After editing by
Supervisors, the billing documents were then sent to Roanoke, Virginia. However, in 1987, the Carrier installed a computer-aided car repair billing
system referred to as CARS. Once that system was in place, paper-and-pencil
repair bills were no longer prepared. Instead, repair information is entered
into hand-held electronic devices containing miniature computer keyboards and
display terminals. That device is known as a KATY.
Form 1 Award No. 12039
Page 2 Docket No. 11661-T
91-2-88-2-157
The Organization contends that the Carrier violated Rules 40, 42 and
132 of the Agreement when, on four dates in April, 1987, the Carrier allowed
Supervisors to enter billing information into the CARS through KATY devices.
Rule 132 is the carmen's Classification of Work Rule. However, Rule 132 does
not specifically mention the entry of repair billing information into the CARS
system. As the Organization appears to concede, Rule 132 cannot be said to
specifically reserve that work exclusively to the carmen. Rules 40 and 42
provide, respectively:
"RULE 40.(a) Except as provided in this Rule 40
and Rules 39, 41, 42 and 44 of this agreement, none
but mechanics or student mechanics regularly employed
as such will be assigned to do mechanics' work as per
special rules of each craft, except at small points
where minor or emergency jobs are required.
(b) Helpers shall not be advanced to the detriment of mechanics.
(c) This rule shall not apply to foremen at
points where no mechanics are employed or to foremen at other points in charge of small forces whose
time is not fully occupied in supervisory duties."
"RULE 42. (a) None but mechanics or student
mechanics regularly employed as such shall do
mechanics' work as per the special rules of each
craft except foremen at points where no mechanics are
employed. However, craft work performed by foremen
or other supervisory employees employed on a shift
shall not in the aggregate exceed 20 hours a week
for one shift, 40 hours a week for two shifts, or 60
hours for all shifts.
(b) If any question arises as to the amount of
craft work being performed by supervisory employees,
a joint check shall be made at the request of the
General Chairman of the organizations affected. Any
disputes over the application of this rule shall be
handled in accordance with the provisions of Rule 35
- Claims and Grievances.
(c) An incumbent supervisor who assumed his
present position prior to October 15, 1962, at a
point where no mechanic is employed, may be retained
in his present position. However, his replacements
shall be subject to the preceding paragraphs of this
rule."
Form 1 Award No. 12039
Page 3 Docket No. 11661-T
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Although none of the cited Rules explicitly provides that the work at
issue in this Claim belongs exclusively to carmen, the Organization contends
that such work "historically" has been done by carmen at Olive Yard. The Carrier disagrees.
The Carrier first argues that there cannot possibly have been an
"historical" practice with respect to the entry of repair bill information
into the computer-aided repair system because the CARS system was just inaugurated in 1987. However, the Organization refers not merely to the entry of
data into CARS, but to the historical (pre-CARS) method of preparing repair
bill information for transmittal through the Carrier's system.
If the repair bill work was exclusively performed by carmen prior to
the advent of the CARS system, and if as appears the carmen are competent to
continue performing the work using the new devices, there might well be merit
to the Organization's position in this Claim. The use of supervisors to take
over part of the function after the CARS was in place might represent, as the
Organization argues, an incursion into work belonging exclusively to the carmen. However, the Organization did not substantiate its contention that the
historical practice was to reserve the writing and "inputting" of repair bills
exclusively to carmen.
It goes without saying that, in order to prevail in a Claim like
this, the Organization must show either that the Agreement specifically
reserves the work to its members or that the work has been performed exclusively by its members throughout an extended period of time. See, Second
Division Awards 11533 and 11535. Absent such a showing here, this Claim must
be denied.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
Attest:
Nancy J.T~rer - Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 1st day of May 1991.