NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
TRANSPORTATION-COMMUNICATION EMPLOYEES UNION
(Formerly The Order of Railroad Telegraphers)
ALABAMA, TENNESSEE AND NORTHERN
RAILROAD COMPANY
Effective July 1, 1962, Positions 2 and 3 were discontinued and the assigned hours of Agent-Telegrapher position No. 1 were changed to 9:00 P. M. to 6:00 A. M. with one hour for meals Monday through Friday, holidays included, with assigned call. 9:00 A. M. to 11:00 A. M., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
OPINION OF BOARD: Prior to July 1, 1962, the Carrier's work force covered by the Telegraphers' Agreement at York, Alabama, consisted of the following:
Effective July 1, 196::, Carrier abolished Positions No. 2 and No. 3 and reassigned the No. 1 Agent-Operator as follows:
During the period July 1, 1962 until February 22, 1963, the Agent-Operator worked a total of 636 hours of overtime, or more than 80 hours of overtime a month. In and after November, 1963, the Saturday-Sunday work was performed by an extra employe.
Employes do not question the right of Carrier to abolish a position, provided the work of the position no longer remains to be performed. Employes do question such a right if the work of a position remains, and Employes maintain that the work of Position No. 2 still remains to be performed.
In Award No. 5235 (Boyd), the Third Division of the Adjustment Board decided a similar dispute. It was there held that the Carrier may not abolish a position and assign a substantial portion of the work of the abolished position to another employe to be regularly performed during overtime hours. The agreement between the parties to that dispute was almost identical, in pertinent part, to the Telegraphers' Agreement to be interpreted in the case now before the Board.
This Board sees no reason to depart from its holding in Award No. 5235. The sole question becomes one of fact: Did a substantial portion of the work of Position No. 2 remain to be performed? The Board finds that a substantial portion did remain, in view of the fact that the employe filling the surviving Position No. 7. was required to work 16 hours of overtime a week under a 7-day-a-week schedule clearly constructed to embrace the crucial hours of the three positions existing prior to July 1, 1962, and all the hours of the abolished Position No. 2.
Employes, by way of relief, ask this Board to re-establish Position No. 2 and to return the former occupant thereto. This Board has no authority to grant such relief. See Award No. 13840 (Coburn) and many others. However, the claimant' can be made whole for his wage loss, which is the difference
between what he would have earned had Carrier not improperly abolished his position and what he did earn during the same period. The question of whether expenses claimed by the claimant can be allowed is not before the Board, no showing having been made that any were incurred.
FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, 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
Item 3 is sustained to the extent that the Claimant is to be compensated in an amount equal to the difference between the amount he would have earned as the employe of the abolished position and the amount he actually earned while working at other positions, but the Claimant is not to be compensated for any expenses.