"The employes contend that Mr. M. H. Beall should have been placed on position of Index Clerk, rate $132.00 per month, effective February 4th, 1937. Mr. Beall is a senior employe to Wayne Williams and has sufficient ability to properly perform the work on the position. We contend the provisions of Rules 6 and 7 were not complied with, likewise general interpretation governing the filling of short or temporary vacancies was not complied with.

"The employes contend Mr. M. H. Beall should have been assigned to this position and now ask that he be paid at the rate of $132.00 per month during the time he was denied the right to perform the work on the position of Index Clerk."

POSITION OF CARRIER: "Rule 19 of the current clerical agreement reads:

"The accepted and understood application of this ,rule, insofar as the Accounting Department is concerned, has always been that short vacancies of thirty days or less could be filled without regard to seniority. It has been the practice to fill such short vacancies with qualified employes then in the service if available. The employes are now asking that your Board change the application of this rule in the Accounting Department.

"We have no objection to giving consideration to the request of any employes who may desire a short vacancy, but we do not concede that we are obligated under the agreement to recognize seniority in such cases. To concur in the request of the employes would be equivalent to eliminating Rule 19 from the schedule, because to allow the claim would mean that the same procedure should be followed in filling short vacancy positions as is followed in filling permanent positions.

"In filling short vacancies it is the practice, in the Accounting Department, to use the employe whom the supervising officer feels can best perform the work during the short time necessary and whose absence from his regular position will cause the least amount of disturbance in his respective department.

shows that under this rule it was contemplated that new employes without any seniority can be employed to fill these positions."

OPINION OF BOARD: It is shown in the Joint Statement of Facts that on February 1, 1937, an employe in the office of Auditor Disbursements, Chicago, junior to Mr. Beall, was assigned to fill a temporary vacancy on the position of Index Clerk, rate $132 per month. On February 4, 1937, Mr. Beall, occupying position paying $121.75 per month, made written request for assignment to this temporary vacancy, but was not permitted to exercise his seniority rights thereon.

The carrier represents that the understood and accepted application of Rule 19, insofar as Accounting Department is concerned, has always been that short vacancies of 30 days or less could be filled without regard to seniority. Also, that in 1933 the General Manager of the Operating Department agreed with the employes that thereafter, in the Operating Department, a new applicaion would be followed in filling short vacancies; i. e., employes in the service making request on the proper officer would be permitted, on a seniority

294

basis, if qualified, to fill the vacancy. Further, that the General Manager had no authority to change the application of Rule 19 in any department other than the Operating Department.

The question here for determination is whether the interpretaion of Rule 19 issued by the General Manager in December, 1933 should be applied in the Accounting Department. The agreement is applicable to employes (enumerated in Rule 1-Scope) of all departments, subject to the exceptions stipulated in Rule 1. Uniform interpretation and application of Rule 19 of the agreement are contemplated, except as may be otherwise mutually agreed to by the parties.

The interpretation and application of Rule 19 adopted and applied by the Operating Department in 1933, should govern departments where it heretofore has not been applied, effective from the date of this award, in view of which the claim of M. H. Beall for compensation should not be allowed.

FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, after giving the parties to this dispute due notice of hearing thereon and upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:

That the carrier and employes involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employes within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1934;

That this Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein; and

That interpretation and application of Rule 19 as adopted and applied by the Operating Department in 1933, shall govern in all departments, effective from the date of this award and claim of M. H. Beall for compensation is not allowed.

AWARD