NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number CL-19489
(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks,
(Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes
PARTIES TO DISPITTE:
(Southern Railway Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-6992)
that:
(a) Carrier violated the Agreement at Macon, Giorgia, when it refused
to assign Mr. 0. F. Morgan to the position of Truck Driver, advertised by
Vacancy Bulletin No. 1, dated September 4, 1968, and advised him that they
could no longer use him as a Relief Truck Driver.
(b) Mr. Morgan shall be compensated for all time lost beginning
August 2, 1968, and continuing until he is assigned to the position of Truck
Driver.
OPINION OF BOARD: 1. Claimant was a temporary employee within the meaning
of the rules and he was on no seniority roster.
2. Claimant did have impaired vision being effectively blind in
one eye.
3.
Claimant was relieved from duty for physical disability and not
as a disciplinary matter.
4. The fact of the disability is not in dispute in the record.
The fact that the claimant had not had any difficulty for 18 months in perhaps
fortuitous.
5. The carrier has a duty to the employees and the stockholders to
do everything in its power to prevent or reduce accidents.
6. When the carrier, perhaps belatedly, found out that the Claimant
had a physical disability that would render his performance of duties perhaps
dangerous, the carrier had the right, and the duty, to correct the matter by
removing the claimant from service.
7. We find that the absence of sight of one eye is adequate grounds
to not allow a person to drive the carrier's trucks.
8. The Claimant had no absolute right to bid in the job, in the
absence of physical requirements. The agreement is binding, regardless of
the policy of the company. They may, but they do not have to and are not
required to, allow such bidding.
T
Award Number 19328 Page 2
Docket Number CL-19489
FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, after giving the
parties to this dispute due notice of hearing thereon, and upon
the whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:
That the Carrier and the Employee 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.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST:
Executive Secrctary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 14th day of July 1972.
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