BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND STATION EMPLOYES
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
(a) The correct rate of pay for the position of General Clerk at Woodsboro, Texas, is $9.38 per day. Also
(b) Claim that the rate of $9.38 per day be made effective retroactive to the date the position was created.
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: In June and July, 1946, due to a seasonal increase in business it became necessary for the Carrier to create additional positions at certain stations in Seniority District No. 26, including the position here in dispute at Woodsboro, Texas.
On June 22, 1946, the Carrier issued Bulletin No. 151 advertising new position of General Clerk at Robstown, Texas, with rate of $9.60 per day. The duties of which were to-
statement attention of the Board is directed to the fact that the following positions of General Clerk with rate of $8.50 per day (tabulated in Carrier's Statement of Facts) were established subsequent to the Letter Agreement of October 13, 1940 with an annual assignment of 306 days, and the employes did not contend that those positions when established should be paid a higher rate comparable to the rate paid some General Clerk on the same seniority district whose rate of pay had been inflated through operation of the Letter Agreement:
When consideration is given to the above facts, all of which conclusively show the absence of any justification for or merit to the contention and acompanying claim of the Employes it is clearly evident that the contention of the Employes should be dismissed and the alleged claim accordingly denied.
OPINION OF BOARD: This case presents two simple questions. Did the Carrier comply with Rule 51(a) of the Agreement in fixing the rate for a general clerk at Woodsboro, Texas, at $8.50? If not, is the Organization's claim for a rate of $9.38 correct?
On July 5, 1946, the Carrier bulletined a temporary position at Woodsboro, rate $8.50, duties, "check yard, seal and bill cars, make reports and other general clerical duties." On July 22, 1946, the Carrier bulletined abolition of the position, effective July 25, 1946, owing to termination of the grain season.
The Organization argued that the clerk should have received the same rate paid the general clerk at Refugio, the nearest station, six miles north of Woodsboro, "in accordance with the meaning and intent of Rule 51(a)." In further support of its claim, the Organization pointed out that the Carrier, in filling a :similar position at Robstown had bulletined the rate received by another general clerk at Robstown, $9.60.
The Carrier made much of how various rates for general clerks in this seniority district had been affected by reductions from 365 to 306 days a yearall of which we consider to be irrelevant. However, the Carrier also introduced a description of the duties of all the general clerks in the district, along with their rates of pay, at the time the Woodsboro position was filled. This was uncontroverted; the Board accepts these job descriptions as the basis for its judgment, as required by the Agreement.
Careful study of the duties of these general clerks shows that twelve of the thirty-six were assigned approximately the same duties as those assigned at Woodsboro. Two of the twelve were rated at $8.40, seven at $8.50, one at $9.60 and two at $9.73.
A majority, in other words, were at the same rate set for Woodsboro. Or, to put it in still another way, nine were the same or less; only three were higher. 3652-12 ;;¢7
There is nothing in Rule 51 (a) to indicate that the Carrier is obligated to set rates for new positions in conformity with the highest wages for positions of similar kind or class. To the contrary, such clauses are always interpreted to mean "going" or "prevailing" wages. The Carrier was within its right in so interpreting the clause in the instant case.
This Board would be remiss, however, if it failed to point out in this opinion that the Carrier was asking for trouble when it stood on its right to fix the clerks' rate at $8.50 at Woodsboro, in view of all the facts. Every other general clerk from Victoria to the north, to Driscoll to the south, was getting a higher rate. All three of the higher paid clerks' positions whose duties were approximately the same as those at Woodaboro were in this vicinity. One of the three, at Robstown, was established and then abolished for the same reason and at approximately the same time the Woodsboro position was set up, but at a rate of $9.60. There is nothing in Rule 51(a), however, saying that rates in the "immediate vicinity" should be governing in setting new rates.
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 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