NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Lloyd K. Garrison, Referee
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD SIGNALMEN OF AMERICA
ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY
(C. E. Denney and John A. Hadden, Trustees)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"That when the 'Home Station' of Signal
Maintainer F. D. Reish and Signal Helper L. Z. Guy was changed from Caledonia, Ohio, to Martel, Ohio, these positions should have been rebulletined
as new positions."
JOINT STATEMENT OF FACTS:
"Prior to January 1, 1938, Kent Division signal section No. 8 extended from M. P. 287.20 to M. P. 303.00. The
home station of this signal section was Caledonia, Ohio. Effective January 1,
1938, a reorganization of signal sections throughout the Kent Division resulted in the abolition of signal section No. 6, which had its home station at
Gallon, Ohio, and resulted in changing the limits of signal section No. 8,
which was extended eastward from M. P. 287.20 a distance of 12.55 miles
to M. P. 274.65, and had its westerly limit at 303.00 shortened a distance
of 7.25 miles to M. P. 295.75. At the same time, the home station of this
signal section was moved from Caledonia, Ohio, eastward a distance of 4-1/2
miles to Martel, Ohio, and the section number was changed from signal section No. 8 to section No. 7:'
POSITION OF EMPLOYES: "That when the Management changed the
territory and relocated the 'Home Station' of Signal Maintainer Reish and
Signal Helper Guy, from Caledonia, Ohio, to Martel, Ohio, such a change
constituted a new position and should have been readvertised by bulletin
notice and assignments made as provided in Rules 50, 51, and 52 of the
Agreement between the Erie Management and the Brotherhood.
Rule 50. 'New positions or vacancies
which
are expected to be
of more than six (6) months' duration shall be bulletined as permanent within thirty (30) days previous to or ten (10) days following
the date such new position is created or vacancy occurs. New positions or vacancies of more than thirty (30) days and less than six
(6) months' duration will be bulletined within sixty (60) days as temporary. Except when temporary vacancy is due to physical disability
of employe, a position which has been bulletined as temporary and
does in fact exceed six (6) months, will be rebulletined at the end
of six (6) months as permanent. If a position being filled under a temporary vacancy is abolished, the incumbent may return to his former
position.'
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"2. The change of a headquarters of any signal section is not sufficient under the rules to extend to the employes who have been
assigned to such signal section the privilege of exercising seniority rights.
"3. The extension of signal sections has occurred frequently in the
past and it has not been customary under the existing rules to
grant to the Signal Department employes thereon the privilege
of exercising seniority rights.
"4. The changes on the Kent Division which resulted in this grievance
is in accord with previous practices and there is no violation of
rules or practices in this request of the committe representing
Signal Department employes.
There is in existance an agreement between the parties bearing effective
date of November 1, 1935.
OPINION OF BOARD:
The claim is that when the home station of Reish
and Guy was changed from Caledonia to Martel their positions should have
been rebulletined as new positions. In the Employes' supplemental statement and in their brief in answer to the Carrier's rebuttal statement, much
is said about changes of territory and re-numbering of sections, and the
grounds upon which the claim is supported are not wholly clear but the
claim itself is clear that what is complained of is the changing of home stations without bulletining new positions, and this issue is sufficiently joined
and debated in the record to warrant our considering it. In so doing we
disregard the effect, if any, of territorial and section number changes and
restrict ourselves to the issue presented by the claim.
The rules do not define what constitutes the creation of a new position.
Rule 13, however, makes it clear that every employe shall have a home
station, and the operative effect of certain other rules depends upon the
establishment of a home station. (The question is whether the home station
provision is so much a part of a hum's position that when the home station
is abolished and a new one is designated, the position is also abolished and
a new one created. We think that that question should be answered in the
affirmative, and that it can be derived by fair implication from the agreement
Rule 52, prescribing the form of bulletin for advertising positions, contains as one of the five essential elements of a position a designation of the
home station. The reason for this is that the location of the home station
is one of the important considerations on the basis of which employes may
determine whether or not to bid for a position. The other considerations
are the title of position, rate of pay, hours of service, and the permanent or
temporary nature of the position; but without a specification of the home
station, employes would be fully as unable to exercise their choice of bidding
as if any of the other elements were omitted.
(We conclude, therefore, that when the home station is changed the position should be rebulletined. This Division has so held in Awards 587 and
-s 769, which are sufficiently in point to stand as precedents here.)
The claim in this case asks for no affirmative relief; neither for wage
penalties nor for rebulletining the positions now. This opinion, therefore,
is to be taken as an interpretation for the future. This being so, it is unnecessary to correct the claim by the omission of Reish, who appears from
the record to have been improperly included.
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:
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That the Carrier and the 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 the Carrier violated the provisions of the Agreement in failing to
bulletin a change of home station as contemplated by the rules of the agreement.
AWARD
Claim sustained, without penalties or directions to rebulletin.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST: H. A. Johnson
Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 21st day of July, 1939.