13. Claim was progressed in the proper manner on the property and is properly before the Board.

OPINION OF BOARD: Carrier used a furloughed Group 3 employe to fill a temporary vacancy in Group 1 position of Transfer Clerk No. 1106, caused by the absence of the regularly assigned incumbent, when there were no extra or furloughed employes available with seniority in Group 1. Petitioner contends that Carrier violated the Agreement between the parties by assigning the furloughed Group 3 employe to a Group 1 position on a temporary basis because he held no seniority in Group 1 and that the Agreement reserves all Group 1 work to Group 1 employes. The instant claim is in behalf of regularly assigned Group 1 employes, who, Petitioner maintains, should have been assigned to the temporary vacancy on an overtime basis.

Carrier contends that the furloughed Group 3 employe was promoted under Rule 7 (d) of the Agreement to perform the disputed assignment at the straight time rate, and that the claim represents an attempt to deny Carrier the right to promote employes to fill temporary vacancies caused by the absence of regularly assigned employes when there are no extra or furloughed employes available under Rule 25 of the Agreement between the parties.

The pertinent provisions of the Agreement are as follows:

"RULE 1. EMPLOYES AFFECTED

(a) These rules shall govern the hours of service and working conditions of all of the following class of employes of the above named railroads and subsidiary companies now in existence.

Group 1. Clerks, Machine Operators, such as typewriters, adding and calculating machines, bookkeeping, accounting, timekeeping and statistical machines, dictaphones, key-punch, teletype (except teletypes used exclusively in the transmission of messages and reports and located in offices which are equipped with telegraph facilities), and all other similar equipment used in the performance of clerical work or in lieu of clerical work.

Group 2. All other office, station and store employes, including office boys, messengers, train announcers, gatemen, baggage and parcel room employes, train and engine crew callers, telephone switchboard operators, elevator operators, office, station, warehouse, and store watchmen, janitors, and all other employes performing similar work.

Group 3. Laborers employed in and around stations, stores and warehouses.

(b) Positions referred to in this agreement belong to the employes covered thereby, and no position shall be removed from this agreement except by agreement.

(c) This agreement shall not apply to individuals where amounts of less than thirty dollars ($30) per month are paid for special service which only takes a portion of their time from outside employment or business, or to individuals performing personal service not a part of the duty of the Carrier."

"RULE 6. SENIORITY ROSTERS

(b) Seniority roster shall include all employes in each seniority district and will be subdivided into the three groups provided in Rule 1, except in general and division offices, office boys, messengers, and building custodians shall hereafter be included in Group 1 seniority roster."

"RULE 7.

PROMOTIONS, ASSIGNMENTS AND DISPLACEMENTS

(d) Employes promoted from Group three (3) to Group two (2) positions or from Group two (2) or Group three (3) to Group one (I) positions, shall acquire seniority in the higher group effective as of the date of promotion and shall retain and continue to accumulate seniority in Group two (2) or three (3).

(e) If displaced, they shall be required to exhaust their seniority rights in group and seniority district in which employed before being permitted to exercise rights over employes in group or seniority district from which promoted, and must return to Group one (1) as soon as their seniority will permit."

"RULE 25. EXTRA BOARD

(c) If there are no available employes holding seniority in that group, senior employes in other groups who desire to perform extra work will be called."

The record discloses that over the years, 60 employes in Group 2 have been promoted to Group 1, 4 employes from Group 3 to Group 1, and 3 employes to Group 2 in accordance with the provisions of Rule 7 (d). In fact, both Claimants previously held positions in Group 2 and were promoted to positions in Group 1. It also should be noted that a primary purpose for defining various classifications of clerical employes in Rule 1 (a) is to identify the higher skilled employes for pay purposes and to preserve to the group the higher rated positions. However, it does not limit them to the performance of particular clerical work. Award 7167. Ordinarily, employes on one seniority roster should not be used to perform the work of positions on another seniority roster. However, when a temporary vacancy exists that

cannot be filled from the roster of a particular Group under Rule 1 (a) of the Agreement, and there are no extra unassigned or furloughed employes available with seniority in that group, the promotion of a furloughed employe in another group under Rule 1 (a) to fill the temporary vacancy is ,proper. Awards 6266, 7167, 9047. This Board has held on numerous occasions that a Carrier is not bound to pay the punitive rate for work performed if it can be accomplished at the straight time rate, within the framework of the collective bargaining agreement. (Award 7227.)

We have carefully considered the earlier Awards relied on by Petitioner in support of the instant claim and feel the factual situations are readily distinguishable. The instant disputes involves the promotion of a furloughed employe with established seniority in Group 3 to a temporary vacancy in a Group 1 position in the absence of an extra or furloughed employe with seniority in Group 1. No new hiring is involved in this case.

In view of the foregoing, we must deny the claim.

FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:

That the parties waived oral hearing;

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

That the Agreement was not violated.

AWARD Claim denied.

NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD By Order of THIRD DIVISION

ATTEST: S. H. Schulty

Executive Secretary