BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND STATION EMPLOYES
SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY
(Pacific Lines)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-4980) that:
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: There is in evidence an Agreement bearing effective date October 1, 1940, reprinted May 2, 195-5, including revisions (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement), between the Southern Pacific Company (Pacific Lines) (hereinafter referred to as the Carrier) and its employes represented by the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes (hereinafter referred to as the Employes) which Agreement is on file with this Board and by reference thereto is hereby made a part of this dispute.
1. At the time of this dispute the following employes and their positions were here involved:
OPINION OF BOARD: In December of 1959, at its Sacramento, California Station, the Carrier augmented its mail-handling force by the addition of temporary foremen and mail handler positions in anticipation of the Christmas holiday increase in mail. Among these were the positions here designated as Nos. 98 and 102. Position No. 71 was a bulletined, regularlyassigned job. Nos. 98 and 102 were not bulletined as being of temporary duration under Rule 34. All were within the same seniority district and at the same location, i.e., the Sacramento Baggage Room.
Position No. 102 was classified as mail handler, first grade, with hours 9:30 P. M. to 5:30 A. M. Claimant Keiser was assigned thereto. He and his crew were used inside the mail room to load trucks and to assist on the platform and the mail belt.
Position No. 98 was also classified as mail handler, first grade, with hours 10:00 P. M. to 6:00 A. M. H. Crump was assigned thereto. He and his crew worked on the outside loading and unloading mail cars.
Claimant King was the regularly-assigned occupant of Position No. 71mail handler, second grade-hours 10:00 P. M. to 6:00 A. M. He, too, worked outside, loading and unloading mail cars.
On December 23, 1959, Crump was injured while enroute to work and was unable to report for duty. Claimant Keiser was moved outside the Baggage Room and performed the work Crump would have done had he reported. Claimant King was moved inside the mail room. He was also so used on December 24. Both Claimants were paid at the rates of first and second grade mail handlers, respectively.
The Employes allege a violation of Rule 22, entitled "Absorbing Overture", which reads as follows:
The allegation is based upon the fact that two regularly-assigned mail handlers, first grade, on different shifts could have been used to perform Crump's work on an overtime basis.
To support the charge of rule violation, the Employes must show that a Claimant has been required to suspend work on his assignment and to perform the work of another position which, otherwise, would have to have been performed on an overtime basis by the incumbent of the latter position. Awards 7167, 5331.
The record in this case establishes that neither of the Claimants was required to suspend work on his assignment. Each worked his regular hours, and no one, including the incumbent of Position No. 98, worked any overtime. The fact that additional duties may have been imposed upon Claimants and that they were required to work inside or outside is not material. That Carrier management may add to, subtract from, or otherwise change the duties of a position and even require those duties to be performed at two different locations, as a general proposition, has been settled on this property. (See Award 8428, involving these same parties.) Nor is there any rule in the Agreement before us which expressly or impliedly requires this Carrier to pay the punitive rate for work which can properly be accomplished at the straight time rate. (Cf. Award 7227.) 13192-16 40.5