___ Award No. 16286
Docket No. CL-17208
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Arthur W. Devine, Referee
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
/ BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY, AIRLINE AND STEAMSHIP
CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND
STATION EMPLOYES
CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the
Brotherhood (GL-6353) that:
1. The Carrier violated the Clerks' Agreement when effective
with date of July 27, 1966 it arbitrarily and without just cause dismissed Frank W. Carroll, Senior Real Estate Clerk, Chicago, Illinois, from service.
2. Senior Real Estate Clerk Frank W. Carroll shall now be reinstated to the service of the carrier with seniority, vacation, holiday and all other rights unimpaired and compensate him for all loss
of time sustained until he is reinstated.
3. Senior Real Estate Clerk Frank W. Carroll's record shall be
cleared of all alleged charges or allegations which may have been
recorded thereon as a result of the alleged violation named herein.
OPINION OF BOARD:
This is a discipline case involving dismissal of
Claimant for refusing to comply with instructions.
The record in the case is voluminous. We have studied it carefully, and
do not find that any of Claimant's substantive procedural rights were violated.
As to the merits of the case, the record is clear that Claimant deliberately refused to comply with reasonable instructions or orders of his
supervisors. It is a generally recognized principle in the railroad industry
that reasonable orders issued by supervisory officers must be complied with.
Whether the Claimant believed that the work involved could properly be
assigned to him is not controlling. It was his duty to comply with instructions and thereafter seek a remedy through proper grievance channels for
whatever rights he felt were violated.
We are not unmindful of Claimant's forty-seven years of service. However, years of service alone does not give an employe a right to violate rules
or orders. If he does, he does so at his peril. We will 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 by the Carrier.
AWARD
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of THIRD DIVISION
ATTEST: S. H. Schulty
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 10th day of May 1968.
Keenan Printing Co., Chicago, Ill. Printed in U.S.A.
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