STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GI-5857) that:

(a) Carrier violated the Agreement at Chattanooga, Tennessee, when Miss Myrna E. Kerr, former Clerk-Stenographer, was notified while on vacation, that effective this date, August 5, 1964, she was removed from her assignment.

(b) Miss Kerr shall now be restored to her position of Clerk-Stenographer with all rights unimpaired.

(c) Miss Kerr shall now be properly compensated for the period beginning August 17, 1964, and continuing until she is restored to her position.

OPINION OF BOARD: Rule 40 of the Agreement reads:

(a) Employes will not be discharged or disciplined except for cause. If request is made therefor within five days, an investigation shall be held. Investigation will be made by the proper officer within five days after date of request, if possible, and in their presence. They will have the privilege of bringing to such investigation one or more employes of their own selection to act as representatives, provided such employes are in good standing on their seniority district. Pending investigation employes may be ,relieved from service . . . "

Claimant was discharged on August 5, 1964. She filed claim for reinstatement and loss of wages. She failed to make request for investigation as provided for in Rule 40(a); and, she rejected an offer from Carrier to conduct an investigation. Therefore she failed to handle the claim in the "usual manner" on the property which is an indispensable condition precedent to invoking this Board's jurisdiction (RLA Sec. 3, First (i)). We will, therefore, dismiss the claim.

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;

AWARD