BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS,
FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND STATION EMPLOYES
POTOMAC YARD OF THE RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG
AND POTOMAC RAILROAD COMPANY
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes that the carrier violated and continues to violate the Clerks Agreement: (1) When on September 23, 1946 by bulletin effective with the next pay day it removed work covered by the Clerks Agreement from the Chief Clerks to the General Yardmasters, and assigned such work to the Terminal :Inspector, an Official of the Company not covered by the Clerks Agreement; or any other agreement, and
(2) That the Carrier (Potomac Yard of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company) shall now be required by appropriate award and order of the Board to restore such work to the Chief Clerks to the General Yardmaster, employes covered by the Clerks Agreement, and compensate employes who lost pay. and time due to this violation from September 23, 1946 until this case is settled.
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: When the Yard was first opened in 1906 the employes at Potomac Yard were paid off from a pay car which came from Richmond, Va., each pay day, and this method continued until 1923 or 1924 when the pay car was cut o8. At that time the head of each. Department designated some employe or employes to distribute pay checks to the employes of that department. In the Transportation Department the Chief Clerks were designated by the Superintendent to distribute pay checks to the employes of that department, and in other departments other employer covered by the Clerks agreement were designated to do this work.
The Chief Clerk in the Transportation Department continued to be responsible for the distribution of the pay checks to that department until this bulletin of September 23, 1946 was posted, when this work was turned over to the Terminal :Inspector an Official of the Company, not covered by the Clerks Agreement. There has been no change in the other Departments
the same employes who were designated in 1923 or 1924 are still doing this work.
POSITION OF EMPLOYES: There is in evidence an agreement between the parties bearing effective date of October 16th, 1944 from which the following rules or portions are quoted:
about this dispute. The employes assigned to these positions have merely been relieved of this particular duty, without change in remuneration or status. It may be on occasion that some additional work will be performed at the time ithe pay checks are distributed, such as handing out Withholding Tax forms, or related data, and in such cases, as in the past, any additional help required will be drawn from the clerical ranks. However, records checked back from September 30, 1946, to January 1, 1942, show that on only two occasions during this period of three years and nine months was any assistance required by either of the Chief Clerks on pay days.
For all of the reasons given, the claim should be denied, and the Carrier respectfully requests that the Board so decide.
OPINION OF BOARD: This case arises out of a change in the 22-year-old method of distributing pay checks in the Transportation Department at the Potomac Yard of the Carrier.
Before September 23, 1946, the checks for 22 years had been distributed by the Chief Clerks to the General Yardmaster, or their substitutes. As of that date this work was transferred to the Terminal Inspector, a position not covered by the Agreement.
None of the clerks lost any time because of this reassignment of work. The Organization claims a violation of the Scope Rule and certain seniority rules, however, in removal of the work from the Agreement.
We have ruled many times that a Carrier cannot do this. Award 751 and many others. We will so hold in this case, although we will dismiss the claim for back pay since the Organization has admitted no one has lost any time because of the change.
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 3699-9 803