It will be noted that the above communication refers solely to SECTION GANGS. The understanding contained therein was not intended to be applied, nor has it ever been applied to any other class of employes. While the above letter is dated July 28, 1944, it has not heretofore been contended by the organization that it applied to other than section gangs, despite the fact that Water Service Mechanics have had frequent occasion to travel to locations away from their assigned headquarters in motor truck.

For example, the payroll records will show that during the months of February and arch, 1947, water Service Helper with headquarters at Danville was compensated at the pro rata rate for a total of twenty-seven and one-half hours account traveling by motor truck outside the assigned hours at home station. It is Carriers contention that action of the parties here involved over a period of three years firmly establishes that the understanding set forth in the letter of July 28, 1944, applied only to section gangs.

This understanding was based on conditions peculiar to the class of employes referred to, and was merely a continuation of the accepted practice with respect to daily transportation of these gangs to and from assigned headquarters and the point where they are to work. Section gangs customarily report at headquarters for the section and and transported to and from work location by track motor car. It has not been the practice to consider time spent by section gangs riding on motor cars to and from work location as travel time, within the intent and meaning of Article 6(c).

In 1944 arrangements were made to transport one or two of the larger gangs by company owned bus, rather than by track motor car. It was agreed that the existing practice with respect to compensation for daily travel to and from work location on track motor car would be continued when gangs were transported by bus. This understanding, on its face, was confined to section gangs, was based on conditions peculiar to such gangs, and was not intended to apply to any other class of employes.

It is Carrier's position that the provisions of Article 6(c) are controlling with respect to compensation for travel time outside the assigned hours at home station. Under the circumstances, the instant claim is without merit and we respectfully request that same be declined.

OPIONION OF BOARD: The question raised in this case is whether the Claimant, a water service helper, shall be paid at pro rata or time and one-half rate for the time spent in traveling to and from his work before and after his regular hours. Claimant performed work at outlying points during the times stated in the claim. He was transported to and from work in a motor truck. He was compensated at the pro rata rate for the time spent in going and coming from work and after his assigned work period. He claims the overtime rate as provided by Rule 4(a), current Agreement, which provides:

"(a) Time worked preceding or following and continuous with the regular eight (8) hour work period, exclusive of meal period, shall be computed on the actual minute basis and paid for at time and one-half rates, with double time computed on actual minute basis after sixteen (16) continuous hours of work in any twenty-four (24) hour period computed from the starting time of the employe's regular shift. Employes required to work continuously from one regular work period into another shall be paid at the rate of time and one-half for the first sixteen (16) hours work of the second or succeeding twenty-four (24) hour work periods, and thereafter double time until the beginning of the next regular shift or until relieved."

The Carrier contends that the dispute is controlled by Rule 6(c), which states in part:

"(c)Employees except as provided in Paragraphs (b) and (d), who are required by the direction of the management to leave/their home station, will be allowed actual time for traveling or waiting during the regular working hours. All hours worked will be paid for in accordance with practice at home station. Travel or waiting time

during the recognized overtime hours at home station will be paid for at the pro rata rate."

It cannot be questioned that the language used in the two quoted rules is in conflict. We shall harmonize these apparent conflicts by applying the rules in the manner that the past conduct of the parties indicates their meaning to be. It is not disputed that water service employes when traveling by motor car were paid time and one-half for traveling in overtime hours. When trucks were employed to supersede motor cars as a means of transporting these employes, it did not have the effect of changing their existing hours of service or rates of pay/ This is in accord with the interpretation given when section laborers were transported by bus in lieu of motor cars. The Carrier then interpreted the rules to mean: "The time required to go from headquarters to point of work and return from point of work to headqu rters will be paid for as time worked." In the case of section laborers, the(travel by bus was held to be in lieu of travel by motor car and called for the application of the same rules in like insurer as before. In the case of this Claimant, the travel by truck was in lieu of travel by motor car and requires the application of the same rules in like manner as before. Claimant was therefore entitled to pay for the travel time here involved as time worked in excess of eight hours.

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.

AWARD

Claim sustained.

NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD By Order of Third Division