BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP
CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND
STATION EMPLOYES
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-5973) that:
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: This dispute is between the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes as the representative of the Class or Craft of employes in which the claimant in this case holds position and the Southern Railway Company.
Mrs. M. C. Smith is carried on the Southern Railway System, Auditor of Freight Accounts, Machine Accounting Bureau, Seniority Roster-Group 1, Clerks, with a seniority date of October 16, 1928. She, at the time of this claim, had been an employe of the Southern Railway Company for more than thirty-five years.
Mrs. Smith was assigned to a position of Stenographer in Stenographic Bureau, effective January 16, 1929, which she held until January 15, 1943, on January 16, 1943 she was assigned as Stenographer to Chief Clerk Overcharge Claims, which she held until January 15, 1945, on January 16, 1945 she was assigned as Stenographer in Office of Auditor of Overcharge Claims which she held until April 30, 1948. On May 1, 1948, she was assigned as Secretary to Auditor of Overcharge Claims which she held until December 15, 1962, on December 16, 1962, she was assigned as Secretary to Manager, Overcharge Claims which she held until the office was moved to Macon, Georgia, in July 1964, she did not choose to follow her position to Macon and became furloughed.
OPINION OF BOARD: It is contended that Carrier violated the Agreement when it assigned Mrs. M. S. Baughman to the position of Stenographer (259), Freight Accounting Section, Revenue Accounting Department, rather than Claimant Mrs. M. C. Smith, a person of greater seniority with Carrier. Neither contender had seniority in that District though Claimant had been with Carrier more than thirty-five (35) years in a succession of positions and Mrs. Baughman had been with Carrier about six months.
The position was filled under provision of Rule 15 of the Agreement by the Director, Revenue Accounting, the appointing officer, and that decision was subsequently appealed with the appointing officer's decision being sustained by Carrier's officers.
Emp:oyes urge that the decision of the appointing officer was unreasonable and unjust and arrived at without foundation; that a reasonable assessment of Claimant's long years of experience in successively higher rated positions requires a finding that she was qualified, with merit and capacity for the position. However nothing is offered to offset the report of the appointing officer that he investigated the qualifications of both by interviewing present and past supervisors and on the basis of their reports determined that the qualifications of the two were not equal, that Mrs. Baughman was clearly of higher qualification.
This same issue between these same parties has been before this Board on many occasions, most recently in Awards 15929, 15784 and 15387 and their findings are controlling. Absent a showing that the decision of Carrier's representative was arbitrary, capricious or manifestly unjust this Board will not substitute its judgement for that of the representative and no such showing has here been made.