NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
That work equipment operators A. A. Purdy, G. C. Height, A. Bourgault and other work equipment operators who might be similarly affected, be reimbursed at overtime rates of pay for the difference between their established meal period of thirty minutes (12:00 Noon to 12:30 P. M.) and any meal period in excess of thirty minutes which they are ordered to take under the terms of Mr. Healey's directives of February 27, 1950 and March 16, 1950 for each day such a situation exists, or has existed, commencing with March 14, 1950 and continuing for such period as the directives are in effect or a settlement is made in the matter which is satisfactory to all concerned.
"CRANE ENGINEERS: When on gasoline cranes the starting time for these men will be thirty minutes in advance of the starting time of the crew with which they are working unless other arrangements are made. They will be allowed thirty minutes to put crane up for the night, make secure, etc., after crane reaches point where it is to put up. When on steam cranes, the starting time for these men will be one hour in advance of te starting time of the crew with which they are working, unless other arrangements are made. They will be allowed thirty minutes to put crane up for the night, make secure, etc., after crane reaches point at which it is put up. All crane engineers will take a noon period to correspond with the crew with which they are working unless other arrangements are made."
It is hereby affirmed that all data herein submitted in support of our position have heretofore been presented to the Carrier and are hereby made a part of the question in dispute.
OPINION OF BOARD: The effective Agreement between the parties to this dispute was entered into on May 15, 1942. On May 22, immediately following, Carrier issued an instruction notice to crane engineers which in substance provided that operators of gasoline cranes would commence work 30 minutes in advance of starting time of the crew with which they were working and that they would be allowed 30 minutes to put up the crane after reaching the point where it was to be put up. On steam cranes the rule was the same except that the starting time was to be one hour in advance of the starting time of the crew with which they were working. The notice also provided that crane engineers were to take a noon period to correspond with the crew with which they were working unless other arrangements were made. On March 16, 1950, a bulletin was issued, the pertinent parts of which provided:
The Organization contends that the bulletin of March 16, 1950, is in violation of the Agreement. Claims were filed by the crane operators named in the instant dispute. Carrier contends that the Organization neglected or refused to progress the claims to this Board and, because of the continuing nature of the alleged violation, the Carrier brought the matter to this Board for final decision.
The basis of the claim is that meal periods for this class of employes had been fixed for may years at 30 minutes, 12 noon to 12:30 P. M., and that the bulletin of March 16, 19510, in conforming the assigned hours of this class of employes to the hours of the crew with which they are working, -has the effect of extending the meal period in many cases. The claim is that claimants be paid at the overtime rate for any time used as a meal period in excess of 30 minutes.
The dispute appears to have grown out of a situation where crane operators were working in conjunction with track department crews having an established meal period of one hour. The argument is advanced that crane operators used the second 30 minutes of the meal period in performing preventive maintenance on his crane. It is asserted that bulletin of March 16, 1950, deprives these employes of 30 minutes overtime work to which they were entitled. This portion of the argument is not sound as it is clearly the prerogative of Management to determine the amount of maintenance work to be done on an overtime basis or otherwise. The sole question is whether the requirement that meal periods of crane operators be conformed to those with crews with which the crane is working is violative of the Agreement when they are required to take a meal period in excess of 30 minutes.
Rule 38 clearly permits the Carrier to fix the meal period at not less than 30 minutes nor more than one hour. Consequently, in bulletining a position, it may properly fix the meal period at any length of time from 30 minutes to one hour. Rule 36 imposes a further limitation upon the fixing of meal periods by requiring that they be fixed between the beginning of the fifth hour and the ending of the sixth hour after starting work, and that when fixed within the period they shall not be changed except by agreement. But this does not mean that if the work assignment is changed, the meal period also may not be changed within the limitations of the cited rules. Where a Carrier changes the work assignment of an employe by notice as it did here, it clearly has the right to change the meal period within the limits prescribed by Agreement rules It is true that a Carrier may not capriciously juggle meal periods around within the two-hour limit after they have once been fixed by bulletin. But when the hours of work of the assignment are changed by bulletin, the meal period can also be changed within the rules governing meal periods. We think this dispute is largely controlled by the reasoning contained in Award 4851. No question of the correctness of the working hour assignment or the starting time fixed is here involved. There is no basis for an affirmative award.
FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, after giving the parties to this dispute 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