THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-6079) that:
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: For many years prior to the effective date of the current Agreement, effective May 1, 1942, there had existed a practice in the General Offices in Atlanta, Georgia of allowing employes to attend funerals of fellow employes without deduction in pay.
On November 16, 1965 Employes E. D. Aycock, M. E. Long, J. C. Allen and S. S. Shepard attended the funeral of Clerk Clyde T. Bowen and lost approximately two hours and thirty minutes time as result thereof. For the first time in many years all of the above employes' salaries were deducted in the amounts shown in the claim above, and in consequence thereof, the Vice General Chairman presented a claim to General Auditor J. E. MacCarthy under date of December 3, 1965. Copy of this claim, which is self explanatory, is hereto attached and identified as Employes' Exhibit No. 1.
December 16, 1965, General Auditor J. E. MacCarthy, under whose supervision the claimant employes worked, declined the claim and alleged that the past practice which allowed such payments had been wiped out when the
no consistent practice or custom in this regard relating to these claimants it must be held that the claim is without merit."
As previously indicated, for many years Carrier has been most generous in permitting employes to absent themselves from work without loss of pay to attend funerals of fellow employes regardless of the fact that such deceased fellow employes may or may not have worked in their respective departments. In the instant case Claimants were not in the same department as the deceased employe. Such requests were usually, but not always, granted, based' entirely on the requirements of the service. Employes desiring to be off under these conditions would, of necessity, seek and receive permission before leaving their respective assignments during working hours.
OPINION OF BOARD: Claimants, clerks in Carrier's general office, during work hours attended a funeral of an employe thereof, though in a different department, and deductions were made in their pay therefor.
The record discloses that a practice had been followed on the property whereby employes, with permission of their department head, the general auditor in this case, following request made through their chief clerk, were allowed to attend such funerals with pay. From the record, it appears that Claimants simply advised their chief clerk and thereafter went to the funeral without having the permission of the general auditor. As a result, Claimants did not meet the "burden of proof" that they had followed the practice on the property. See, Award 10636 (La Belle).
It is abundantly clear that the Carrier did not violate the Agreement or the practice hereinbefore described.
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