THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood, that:
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: W. W. Krakow, Yard Clerk at Cheyenne, Wyoming, was scheduled to take his vacation December 5th to December 23rd, 1956. He took his vacation as scheduled, asking for and being granted additional time off December 24th, 1956 to January 1st, 1957. Regular forces were stepped up to fill Krakow's vacancy, leaving a vacancy in Utility Clerk's position.
Some of the work was blanked and some performed by clerks on their rest days between the dates of December 5th and 16th.
There were no Extra Clerks available for this work, the Carrier, therefore, placed furloughed Telegrapher Ehredt on the Utility Clerk's position, a short vacancy, on December 17th, Ehredt working the position through December 30th, 1956.
All data herein and herewith submitted has, in substance, been made known to the duly authorized representatives of the Employes on the property.
OPINION OF BOARD: During the period involved in the instant case, the Yard Clerk was on vacation and immediately thereafter on leave of absence. The regularly assigned Utility Clerk was used to fill the vacancy. This, of course, left the Utility Clerk position vacant.
No request was made by any Employe under the Clerk's Agreement to fill the vacancy of Utility Clerk. There were no extra, unassigned or furloughed clerks available.
Carrier employed as a clerk a furloughed telegrapher to fill the vacancy. Claimants, regular assigned Employes, contend that they should have been utilized on their respective rest days to fill the vacancy on the position of Utility Clerk.
We have closely scrutinized the rules of the Agreement cited by the Organization, namely, Rule 1, "Scope"; Rule 2, "Definition of Clerk"; Rule 3, "Seniority Datum"; Rule 4, "Promotion, Assignments and Displacements"; Rule 10, "Short Vacancies"; Rule 15 "Reducing Forces", and Rule 16 "Seniority Roster".
We are of the opinion that under the factual situation herein, there is nothing in the rules cited to prohibit the Carrier from hiring as a clerk a furloughed telegrapher to fill the vacancy on the Utility Clerk's position. See Award No. 7328.
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