There is nothing in the foregoing rule or other rules of the existing agreement that provides for payment of time and one-half to an employe on his seventh day when the position works but six days per week with Sunday as the day of rest. Rule 23 merely states that if an employe is required to work on his assigned rest day, he shall be compensated for such service at the rate of time and one-half. It is a managerial prerogative to determine whether such positions should work six or seven days per week.

After Memorandum Agreement No. 1 was consummated effective March 13, 1946, both Ticket Agent-Operator Lowery and Operator-Ticket Clerk Holliday contended for Sunday off. Inasmuch as Ticket Agent-Operator Lowery was the senior of the two men, and the fact that division officers decided that all work on Position No. 83 (Ticket Agent-Operator) except selling tickets, could be dispensed with on Sunday, Mr. Lowery was assigned Sunday as his day of rest. Positions Nos. 84, 85 and 86 (Operator-Ticket Clerks Holliday, Fincher and Strickland) were continued as seven (7) day positions and relief operator-ticket clerks were assigned to relieve OperatorTicket Clerks Holliday, Fincher and Strickland on their seventh day. Operator-Ticket Clerk Holliday was relieved on Saturday. It is not necessary for the Ticket Agent-Operator to work on Sundays as the work on this position can be deferred until the following day or days.

The claim for the arbitrary amount of $2.00 per day as expenses for Operator-Ticket Clerk Holliday for walking down one flight of stairs account working in the ticket office is ridiculous as he has been doing this for many years without prior complaint. The organization is simply trying to have the agreement interpreted so as to enhance the earnings of the employes. See First Division Award 11605.

The Carrier asserts that it has conclusively established that the claim in the instant case is entirely without basis, and therefore, should be denied.

OPINION OF BOARD: Ticket Agent-Operator Lowery is employed in the ticket office at Vicksburg, Mississippi, with assigned hours 7:00 A. M. to 3:00 P. M., six days per week, with Sunday as his day of rest. OperatorClerk Holliday works from 7:00 A. M. to 3:00 P. M., daily excepting Saturday. The ticket office is on the first floor and the telegraph office on the second floor of the same office building. From March 31, 1946 to July 7, 1946, inclusive, Holliday was required to leave his position on Sundays and work Lowery's position.

It cannot, be questioned that Holliday was working a seven-day position. We think Lowery's position was also a seven-day position. The fact that Carrier changed Holliday's assigned hours to coincide with the hours of Lowery's position immediately before requiring Holliday to perform Lowery's work on Sunday is strong evidence of the fact that, Lowery's position was a seven-day one. It falls within the provisions of Article 8. Rule 21, current Agreement, which provides:

"When a position is regularly required to work more than three (3) hours on Sundays and the specified holidays within the hours of the regular week day assignment, or two (2) or more tours of duty within the hours of the regular week day assignment, the position shall be considered in the same category as a full-time seven-day position and shall be subject to the provisions of Article 9."

The Organization contends that Holliday is entitled to be paid the rate of the Ticket Agent-Operator position and $2.00 per day as expenses as required by Article 10, Rule 30, current Agreement, in being wrongfully required to leave his assigned position to work the rest day of the Ticket Agent-Operator's position. In this connection, the Carrier was obliged by the applicable Agreement to assign the rest day to a regularly assigned relief man, or, if a relief man was not available, to an extra man, or, if an extra man was not available, to the regular occupant of the position on an overtime basis.

The Agreement does not permit the taking of an employe off of a sevenday position to work the rest day of another seven-day position. This would amount to the blanking of one day of a seven-day assignment. Claimant Holliday will be paid the rate of the Ticket Agent-Operator's position on the Sundays worked. The claim for $2.00 per day expenses is denied for the reason that Holliday was not required to leave his regular assigned station on the days for which claim is made, a condition precedent to recovery under the rule. Awards 815, 911.

The claim of the Ticket Agent-Operator is valid. He was entitled to perform the Sunday work for which claim is made. The rate for such Sunday work is time and one-half the assigned rate. Article 9, Rule 23, Memorandum Agreement No. 1, effective December 1, 1945. See also Award 3979.

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

That the Agreement was violated to the extent shown by the Opinion.

AWARD