the 8-hour day-a few minutes at most. The callers and stowers have not been required to perform any work of higher rated positions and the claim is entirely without merit.

It is the Carrier's position that this claim represents a request for increase in rates of pay and is, therefore, not properly before your Honorable Board. If this claim can be deemed to be properly before your Honorable Board then it is not supported by the facts and circumstances nor by any provision of the schedule rules and we respectfully request that it be denied.

All data contained herein has been presented to the employes.

(Exhibits not reproduced.)

OPINION OF BOARD: It is Petitioner's contention that Carrier violated the Agreement when it required the incumbents of stower and caller positions to perform the duties of the higher rated assembler position without additional compensation. The monetary claim is for the wage differential between the rates for stowers and callers on one hand, and assemblers on the other.

This claim stems from Carrier's installation on February 27, 1950, of an overhead conveyor system to supplant the tractor train method theretofore used to move four-wheel freight trucks from one point to another at Galewood Freight House, Chicago, Illinois. Under the new procedure, the trucks are hooked to and from the overhead conveyor belt instead of being formed into a train of trucks pulled by a tractor, as formerly was the system.

There is no question but that the duties of assemblers included hooking and unhooking the trucks in the tractor train under the former procedure and that stowers and callers have been required to hook and unhook the trucks to the overhead conveyor belt since the new system was introduced. However, it has not been adequately established that the hooking and unhooking required of stowers and callers under the new procedure was other than routine, unsubstantial and incidental to the principal duties of assemblers which call for considerably more skill, training and important responsibilities than does the work in question. On the contrary, it affirmatively appears, and it is uncontroverted, that the assemblers' primary duties under the former system had been to organize and regulate the orderly movement of the tractor trains and that the hooking and unhooking of trucks was merely an incidental and small part of their responsibilities. We do not therefore find any valid basis for the instant claim. This result is not affected by Carrier's refusal to participate in a joint check of the claimants' duties before the changes of February 27, 1950 were accomplished.

We subscribe to the holdings of Awards 8526, 4078 and others cited by Petitioner and we agree that we must be alert lest Rule 19 and other like provisions of the Agreement be circumvented by subterfuge and subtle tactics. However, we are satisfied that these principles are inapplicable to the present situation and that the claim must be denied.

It may be that a new wage rate higher than that now paid callers and stowers would be only fair and warranted by reason of the additional duties assigned to them. This Board does not possess, however, the authority to establish new rates in this situation, and any such action may be taken only through negotiation between the appropriate parties. See Award 8748.

That the Agreement has not been violated.

AWARD