Award No. 15978 Docket No. CL-16142
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-5916) that:
OPINION OF BOARD: Mr. H. B. Dedmond, Jr., a Train Clerk at Spencer Yard, Spencer, North Carolina, was dismissed from service after an investigation held on Wednesday, November 6, 1963, for improperly handling a freight car. He was disciplined for allowing loaded car ACL52308, destined for Philadelphia, to be forwarded on Train 55-West to Asheville, North Carolina, as an empty car. This error resulted in a delay in the arrival of the freight car at Philadelphia. Mr. Dedmond was out of service for fifteen days and then was reinstated on a leniency basis effective December 3, 1963.
Brotherhood in his behalf claims that the discipline imposed by Carrier was capricious, arbitrary, and unreasonable, and that he should be compensated for the fifteen days while he was unjustifiably released from service. It takes the position that the type of error Mr. Dedmond made is common in the railroad industry and the punishment was too severe for this clerical mistake. Furthermore, it points out that at least two switch crews handled the car previously, lined it up in Train 55-West, and thus, no doubt, initiated the error.
'The record supports the charge against Claimant. In fact, he admits his mistake. That others may have initiated the error does not make him blameless. There is no showing that Carrier acted arbitrarily or exercised capricious judgment in imposing the discipline of dismissal fom service for fifteen days. Under these circumstances, we find it unnecessary to disturb Carrier's disciplinary action.