NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
(1) The assessment of thirty (30) demerits against the record of Section Foreman Walter Griswold for alleged violation of Rule 364, paragraph 5(a) of Rules and Regulations for Maintenance of Way and Structures was improper and on the basis of unproven and refuted charges.
OPINION OF BOARD: On September 27, 1962 Carrier imposed 30 demerits upon the record of Foreman W. Griswold for an alleged violation of Rule 364, paragraph 5 (a) of Rules and Regulations for Maintenance of Way and Structures following a fire on car NWX 4587 while the weed burner was working on a neighboring track on September 12, 1962.
That provision prohibits the operation of a weed burner within the proximity of certain structures, but does not extend responsibility to the foreman for operations within the prohibited area. Inasmuch as the Claimant was not the operator of the weed burner be cannot be held responsible for its improper operation. Nor can he now be held responsible for failure to report the weed burner operator's alleged rule violation since that was not the reason for assessing the demerits.
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;