STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the Joint Council Dining Car Evployes, Local No. 354, on the property of the Missouri Pacific Lines, for and in behalf of Lindsey Anderson:
1. That he be compensated for ten days he was held out of service, resulting from his being assessed ten (10) days upon a charge-"attitude and demeanor when talking to Superintendent of Dining and Parlor Cars, and acting in a manner unbecoming an employe."
OPINION OF BOARD: Reduced of all surplusage the record before us presents a case where a waiter with a dining car crew was held out of service for ten days for "acting in a manner unbecoming an employe." The Claimant had been called to the office of Carrier's Superintendent of Dining Cars for an interview concerning a complaint. In the course of the conference the Superintendent asked the Supervisor of Service as to what crew he could put the Claimant on, other than the one to which he had previously been assigned. The following colloquy ensued:
The Claimant was then suspended for ten days, without pay, and the Carrier's Passenger Traffic Manager subsequently sustained the penalty.
This is the sum total of the evidence upon which the Claimant was disciplined, except that the Carrier says that the Claimant raised his voice and
spoke in an arrogant, abusive and disrespectful manner when he uttered the words accredited to him above.
There is nothing in the substance of the things said by the Claimant that can be regarded as amounting to insubordination or conduct unbecoming an employe engaged in discussing a matter of importance with his superior. Of course, the manner in which the words were spoken is not disclosed by the transcript of the proceedings but it is hardly conceivable to us that what was said could have been expressed in such an insolent tone as to justify disciplinary action. We may add that the Claimant specifically denied that he spoke intemperately.
Bearing in mind that the burden is on the Carrier to justify the imposition of the penalty, we are constrained to hold that the Claimant is entitled to have his record cleared of the charge and to be compensated for the ten days he was held out of service.
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