In connection with the Carrier's position that there is no requirement under the Forty Hour Week Agreement rules that rest days of each individual position must be filled, attention is also invited to Third Division Awards 5545, 5547, 6232, 6602, 6947, 6948, 7073 and 7189.
The specific question of a Carrier using one dispatcher to cover two districts to perform all dispatcher work from 8:00 A. M. on Saturdays to 11:59 P. M. on Sundays during which time the work was light, and using two dispatchers to cover the two districts at other times, was before your Board in Docket No. TD-6592. The Third Division in Award 6839 thereon cited their Awards 6184 and 6602, referred to by the Carrier in the instant case, and stated:
The Carrier asserts that as the dispatchers involved in the instant case are of the same class, perform the same type of work, receive the same rate of pay and are carried on the same seniority roster, it was proper under the Forty Hour Week rules it cites, as interpreted by your Board, to assign the dispatchers on a staggered basis to cover the seven-day operation. The Carrier further asserts that the abolishment of an assigned relief position which had relieved the second shift Radford to Bristol District dispatcher on Sundays and the use of one dispatcher during the period involved in the claim to perform all dispatcher work on the second trick on Sundays was not a violation of the Agreement as alleged by the Employes.
It is the position of the Carrier the Employes' claim is not supported by any schedule rule, therefore, denial of the claim is respectfully requested.
OPINION OF BOARD: The Carrier's Radford Division extends westward from Roanoke, Va. to Bluefield, W. Va., a distance of 101 miles, and from Walton, Va. to Bristol, Va., a distance of 111 miles. Walton is 40 miles west of Roanoke. Radford Division dispatchers are located at Roanoke, the headquarters of the Division.
Prior to Saturday, May 29, 1954 the Carrier had two dispatcher positions assigned on the first trick 8:01 A. M. to 4:01 P. M.; two on the second trick 4:01 P. M. to 12:01 A. M., and two on the third trick 12:01 A. M. to 8:01 A. M., seven days per week. One dispatcher on each trick worked the district Radford, Va. to Bristol, Va., a distance of 108 miles, Radford being 3 miles from Walton on the line to Bristol. The other dispatcher on each trick worked the district Roanoke to Bluefield plus the 3-mile territory Walton to Radford, therefore, the Roanoke to Bluefield dispatcher territory covered 104 miles of railroad. 10622-13 746
Effective May 29, 1954, the Carrier had one dispatcher work both districts on each of the three tricks on Saturdays and Sundays. The reduction in the number of dispatchers on duty on Saturdays and Sundays was made because of reduced train movement over both territories on such days, and because track motor cars and other maintenance of way equipment which, when used results in extra work for dispatchers, were not normally operated due to Saturday and Sunday being rest days for maintenance of way employes. One dispatcher on each trick on Saturdays and Sundays was all that was needed to perform 11 dispatcher work required. The rearrangement of the dispatcher force effective May 29, 1954 to meet the service requirements resulted in the three Radford to Bristol district dispatchers being assigned to work Monday through Friday with rest days Saturday and Sunday. The remainder of the dispatcher force, which covered both districts on Saturdays and Sundays, but covered only the Roanoke to Bluefield district on other days, was assigned to work as follows:
The rearrangement of the dispatcher force on May 29, 1954 resulted in the abolishment of a regularly assigned relief dispatcher position, the incumbent of which formerly filled the second trick position of the Radford to Bristol district dispatcher on Sundays.
Commencing with July 16, 1955, accountof increased train movement, the second dispatcher was needed and was used on each of the three tricks on Saturdays, and on the first and third tricks on Sundays, and this resulted in the assignment of an additional relief dispatcher. After July 16, 1955, and through December 4, 1955, one dispatcher continued to do all the dispatching work on the second trick on Sundays. Starting with December 11, 1955 a second dispatcher was needed and was used on the second trick on Sundays.
All train dispatchers on the Carrier's Radford Division are of the same class, perform the same type of work, receive the same rate of pay and are carried on the same seniority roster.
It is the position of the Organization that the Carrier had no right under the Agreement to abolish, or not fill, a position on one or both of the rest days and combine the work with that of another position.
Organization claims that the work on the Bristol position had not disappeared nor had it diminished sufficiently to warrant abolishment. That, the position still existed with all its work intact and must be relieved as required by the Rules of the Agreement.
in the Agreement effective September 1, 1949, establishing the Forty Hour Week, the following Rules thereof are pertinent to the question involved:
Organization contends that the Carrier should have included the rest days in a regular relief assignment or have the work otherwise performed by extra employes.
Carrier contends that the right to stagger work, as in the instant case, to meet its operational requirements was of equal importance with the establishment of the forty hour work week itself.
The determination of the number of employes needed to perform its work is the function of Management except as it has limited itself by Agreement. Relief assignments are only required to be made when there is work necessary to be done. When all work can be effectively performed by staggering of regularly assigned employes the necessity for relief assignments on rest days does not exist. In other words, we hold Carrier may, in accordance with its operational requirements, stagger the work week assignments so that the rest days of some will coincide with the work days of others and combine the work done, as was done in this case, and thus make it possible for the regular employe to do all the work necessary to have performed on those days without the necessity of any relief, particularly, where as here, the employes were of the same class, performed the same type of work, receive the same pay and are carried on the same seniority roster. Awards 5545, 8136.
Following the effective date of the Forty Hour Week Agreement in September, 1949, numerous disputes have arisen in respect of various aspects of its application. In the ensuing years, a substantial number of awards have been issued by this Board dealing with the application of said Agreement. 10622-15 4- 48
It is unnecessary to review all of them in detail herein inasmuch as the two points of view of the general issue raised in this case have been fully considered and discussed in Awards 6688 and 6946. The Employes rely on the former and the Carrier on the latter and on later Awards.
We have again thoroughly reviewed those Awards which are clearly in disagreement on the essential points involved, and are again persuaded that the logic of the reasoning in our Award 6946 should be adhered to in this case.
On the basis of the instant record we conclude that for the reasons well stated in Award 6946 that the Agreement was not violated. Awards 6839, 6946, 6974, 7317, 8136, 9119 and 9575.
Carrier has objected to the claim on the ground that it is filed for unnamed employes. Inasmuch as we are deciding this claim on the merits, we deem it unnecessary to make any determination of this point.
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
Assuming without conceding that all of the so-called 40-hour week pro visions of the somewhat obscure agreement involved in these two dockets actually apply to train dispatchers these awards merely compound earlier errors.
These errors arise mainly from the misconceptions that the right to stagger work weeks was something new which was given to the carriers along with the obligation to grant a shorter work week, and that staggered work weeks somehow permit the combining of the work of separate and distinct positions in order to avoid one of the main purposes of the shorter work week: The spreading and maintaining of employment.
For these reasons and those more fully set out in my dissents to Awards 9119, 9574 and 9575, I cannot agree with the present awards and must, therefore, dissent.