NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
Daniel House, Referee
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY, AIRLINE AND STEAMSHIP
CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND
STATION EMPLOYES
NORFOLK AND WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
Claim of the System Committee of the
Brotherhood (GL-6148) that:
1. The Carrier violated the Memorandum Agreement of April
14, 1961, when it transferred work from the positions of Cashier,
Williamson, West Virginia; Cashier, Christianaburg, Virginia and
Clerk, Oak Hill, West Virginia to Comptroller Department Seniority
District No. 19; abolished said positions, and failed and refused to
grant one of the options specified in Section 2 of such Agreement and
other protective benefits accruing thereunder to the affected employes.
2. Cashier John B. Whitt, Williamson, West Virginia, shall be
allowed to exercise one of the three options outlined in Section 2 of
Memorandum Agreement dated April 14, 1961. Further, he shall be
compensated for any wage loss suffered on and after May 15, 1964,
resulting from the Carrier's failure to comply with the provisions of
said Agreement. Also, each employes affected by Cashier John B. Whitt
being required to exercise displacement rights shall be granted one of
the three options specified in Section 2 of the Agreement and shall be
compensated for any wage loss suffered as a result of this violation.
3. Cashier M. M. Smith, Christiansburg, Virginia, shall be allowed
to exercise one of the three options outlined in Section 2 of Memorandum Agreement dated April 14, 1961. Further, he shall be compensated for any wage loss suffered on and after May 15, 1964, resulting
from the Carrier's failure to comply with the provisions of said Agreement. Also, each employe affected by Cashier M. M. Smith being
required to exercise displacement rights shall be granted one of the
three options specified in Section 2 of the Agreement and shall be
compensated for any wage loss suffered as a result of this violation.
4. Clerk E. P. Oxley shall be allowed to exercise one of the three
options outlined in Section 2 of Memorandum Agreement dated April
4, 1961. Further, he shall be compensated for any wage loss suffered on
and after May 22, 1964, resulting from the Carrier's failure to comply
with the provisions of said Agreement. Also, that each employe
affected by Clerk E. P. Oxley being required to exercise displacement
rights shall be granted one of the three options specified in Section
2 of the Agreement and shall be compensated for any wage loss
suffered as a result of this violation.
5. Cashiers Whitt and Smith, Clerk Oxley and all affected employee shall be granted any other protective benefits accruing to them
under the provisions of Memorandum Agreement dated April 14, 1961.
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS:
Under date of April 14, 1961, the
Carrier and the Employes entered into an Agreement to (copy previously
furnished your Board):
1. Permit the Carrier to transfer positions and/or work from
all other seniority districts into the office of the Comptroller Department Seniority District No. 19.
2. Protect and provide certain benefits for the employes involved
both from and to where the positions and/or work being transferred.
3. Adjust the rates of pay of positions resulting from the transfer
and also of the rebuilt or existing positions from where the positions
and/or work was transferred, where such adjustments are warranted
and
4. Provide any other benefits as provided in said Agreement.
Effective April 1, 1964, the Carrier superseded its station accounting plan
by a centralized accounting system, under which the detail of all agencies'
accounts are maintained in the office of Auditor of Station Accounts, Comptroller Department Seniority District No. 19, instead of in the various station
agency offices as was done under the old plan. (Exhibit A.)
As a result of this centralization of station accounting the following
transfer of work from the station agency offices specified below to the
Comptroller Department took place:
Location Minutes Per Day Position
Williamson, W. Va. 60 Cashier
Christiansburg, Va. 100 Cashier
Oak Hill, W. Va. 60 Clerk
(Exhibit B)
Page 1 of Exhibit B is statement furnished the Employes by the Carrier,
and by mutual agreement between the Parties constitutes notices as required
under the provisions of Section 1, Paragraph 2, of the April 14, 1961 Memorandum Agreement. Page 2 of Exhibit B is statement
of
Clerk E. P. Oxley
indicating that some sixty minutes of work per day attaching to his position
at Oak Hill, West Virginia was transferred into Comptroller Department
Seniority District No. 19, as such information was not furnished to the Em-
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"(1) That Cashier John B. Whitt shall be allowed to exercise one
of the three options outlined in Section 2 of Memorandum Agreement
dated April 14, 1961. Further that he shall be compensated for any
wage loss suffered on and after May 15, 1964 resulting from the
Carrier's failure to comply with the provisions of Memorandum Agreement dated April 14, 1961. Also that each employe affected by Cashier
John Whitt's being required to exercise displacement rights shall be
granted one of the three options outlined in Section 2 of Memorandum
Agreement dated April 14, 1961 and shall be compensated for any
wage loss suffered as a result of this violation.
(2) That Cashier M. M. Smith shall be allowed to exercise one
of the three options outlined in Section 2 of '-Memorandum Agreement
dated April 14, 1961. Further that he shall be compensated for any
wage loss suffered on and after May 15, 1964 resulting from the
Carrier's failure to comply with the provisions of Memorandum
Agreement dated April 14, 1961. Also that each employe affected by
Cashier Smith being required to exercise displacement rights shall be
granted one of the three options outlined in Section 2 of Memorandum
Agreement dated April 14, 1961 and shall be compensated for any
wage loss suffered as a result of this violation.
(3) That Clerk E. P. Oxley shall be allowed to exercise one of
the three options outlined in Section 2 of Memorandum Agreement
dated April 14, 1961. Further that he shall be compensated for any
wage loss suffered on and after May 22, 1964 resulting from the
Carrier's failure to comply with the provisions of Memorandum
Agreement dated April 14, 1961. Also that each employe affected by
Clerk E. P. Oxley being required to exercise displacement rights
shall be granted one of the three options outlined in Section 2 of
Memorandum Agreement dated April 14, 1961 and shall be compensated for any wage loss suffered as a result of this violation.
(4) That Cashier Whitt, Cashier Smith, Clerk Oxley and all
affected employes shall be granted any other protective benefits
accruing to them under the provisions of Memorandum Agreement
dated April 14, 1961."
Carrier declined the claim.
OPINION OF BOARD:
Organization's case is based on its claim that "the
work of the positions involved had diminished through the transfer of work
attaching thereto in part to Comptroller Department Seniority District No.
19 to the extent that the Carrier deemed such positions unnecessary." It is
undisputed (with regard to two of the three positions involved) that from
60 to 100 minutes of work per day were so transferred. But Carrier claims that
this transfer of work did not result in such reduction in the work as to require
the abolishment of the positions; that, in fact, the work diminished to an
extent requiring the abolishment of the positions as a result of lessening of the
general volume of work at the involved locations over a period of time
culminating with the elimination of LCL freight handling just before the
abolishment of the positions.
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The April 14, 1961 Memorandum Agreement provides:
"Section 2.-Employes . . . will have one of the following options
when the work on their respective positions has diminished, either
through the transfer of work in whole or in part to Comptroller
Department Seniority District No.
19, to the extent that such positions are deemed unnecessary . . . . (Emphasis ours.)
Had the 60 to 100 minutes a day of transferred work not been transferred,
and had the general flow of other work lessened to the extent that in fact it
did, the question is whether the involved positions would, as claimed by the
Organization, have had to be continued, or whether they could have been
abolished and the remaining work assigned to other positions remaining at the
involved locations. This record does not demonstrate that it would have been
necessary to maintain the involved positions to perform the work had the
work not been transferred. It was up to the Organization to make its ease by
proving that the transfer of the work did in fact diminish the work to the
extent that the positions were deemed unnecessary; this it failed to do.
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 19th day of July 1968.
Keenan Printing Co., Chicago, 111.
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