STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherehood that:
Caller Mr. J. E. Courtney be compensated for wage loss suffered January 30, 1946 (date dismissed) to June 17, 1946, when reinstated as result of instructions issued by the Vice President in Charge of Labor and Public Relations.
OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant has the position of caller in the Joint Agency at Kansas City maintained by the Milwaukee Railroad and the Kansas City Southern.
The controlling Agreement is the Clerks' Agreement with the Kansas City Southern of April 1, 1943.
After a hearing Claimant was dismissed on January 30, 1946. He was reinstated on June 17, 1946. However, Claimant insists that the evidence at the investigation did not justify dismissal and claims reimbursement for all wage loss sustained.
Claimant had an argument with the roundhouse foreman, they both got "hot," and the foreman ordered Claimant to leave the property, and, when Claimant refused, had him removed.
We have carefully studied the transcript of the investigation contained in the record. We do not find any proof of inefficiency, nor any proof of a persistent refusal to following instructions. Claimant did refuse to leave the property when first told to do so, but both men were angry and had had words. Such conduct does not sustain that portion of the charge. We do not find any proof of any failure to cooperate in handling Carrier's business.
Since the evidence adduced does not sustain the charge, the discipline imposed by dismissing Claimant was unreasonable and arbitrary.
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