"All data contained herein has been presented to the employes involved or the duly authorized representative thereof.

"CONCLUSION

"Therefore, the Carrier respectfully submits that the claimant Haggas, is not entitled to compensation for the days claimed while furloughed from active service that the use of Vanderveer to perform the Signalman's service referred to was not in violation of the agreement between the Carrier and the employes represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen of America, and respectfully requests your Honorable Board to dismiss the claim of the employes in this matter.

"The Carrier demands strict proof by competent evidence of all facts relied upon by the claimant, with the right to test same by cross examination, right to produce competent evidence in its own behalf at a proper trial of this matter, and the establishment of a record of all of the same."

There is in existence an agreement between the parties bearing effective date of July 1, 1928, as to Regulations and March 16, 1927, as to Rates of Pay.

OPINION OF BOARD: There can be no question as to the great importance of the seniority rules of collective agreements between carriers and their organized employes; and failure on the part of any carrier to adhere to these rules provides a sound and just basis for such penalty payments as are sought to be recovered in the instant proceeding. It must be remembered, on the other hand, that the seniority rights of employes are confined to those established by tese collective agreements; and to the extent that the carrier is exempted from their restrictions, in the interest of needed stability in the conduct of operations, it is equally important that such authorized freedom of action be not penalized.

In this proceeding controversy centers in the bulletining rule of the Agreement. This rule requires that new positions and vacancies be bulletined, but excepts from the requirement temporary positions of vacancies of less than 30 days' duration. The bulletining requirement is obviously designed to provide for the carrier the necessary data for the application of the seniority rules and the recognition of seniority rights; by the same token, exemption from the bulletining requirement deprives the carrier of the necessary data and removes the obligation to adhere to seniority in making assignments to temporary positions or vacancies. To hold, as contended by the employes, that a senior furloughed employe must necessarily be given preference to a junior active employe in connection with such temporary vacancies as are here involved, is not only to remove all rationale for the differentiation in the bulletining rule between ordinary vacancies and temporary ones of less than 30 days' duration-since the same obligations in observing seniority rights would be imposed in both instances but is either to compel the carrier to act at its peril in making assignments to temporary vacancies without bulletining and the bids that result therefrom, or to make the assertion of the rights of employes depend upon mere accident. Neither the rules of the Agreement nor the practice of the carrier support such a position; on the contrary, there is evidence of record that the employes have sought trough negotiation, though without success, to have a rule reflecting their position in this proceeding incorporated into te Agreement. The existing bulletining rule, as construed herein, seeks to remove the practical difficulties that woud flow from repeated isplacements in connection with temporary positions or vacancies through the exercise of seniority; and the rule as thus construed provided the basis for the appointment of a junior employe possessing the necessary merit and ability and holding seniority as a signalman.

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:

AWARD