NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number CL-19408
(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks,
( Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Boston and Maine Corporation
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-6971)
that:
1. Carrier violated the rules of the Clerks' Agreement, effective
September 1, 1952, as amended, particularly Rules 3(b), 16 and 17(a) when on
various dates as outlined in Employees Statement of Facts, it refused to properly compensate, Chief
C. L. Wolfe for overtime performed on said dates.
2. Carrier shall now be required to pay N. F. Cunningham and C. L.
Wolfe the difference between the amounts paid by Carrier and the amount properly payable at overtime
Crew Dispatcher for overtime work.
nPIN17V OF
BOARD: Petitioner is claiming that when overtime service is per
formed on other than their own positions, claimants are
to be paid at the higher of the two rates under the Preservation of Rates rule
reading:
"Fmployea temporarily or permanently assigned to higher
rated positions shall receive the higher rates for the
full day while occupying such positions or performing
such work except when employes are filling in for other
employes who are continuing under pay; employes temporarily
assigned to lower rated positions or work shall not have
their rate reduced except when a freight house clerk reverts
to a freight handling position or a storehouse clerk reverts
to a storehelper, or a storehelper to a laborer, under Rule
9 of this agreement."
Petitioner urges us to follow Award 17618 (Dugan) where we held:
"Carrier would have us interpolate as a part of said Rule 17
that 'overtime' is excepted from the provisions of said Rule.
With this contention of Carrier, we cannot concur. To the
contrary, we agree with the Organization that Rule 17 provides
that employes will not have their pay rates reduced when assigned
to lower rated positions but shall receive the higher rates of pay
while occupying such position; and that Claimant properly claimed
the higher rate of his regular assigned position when Carrier failed
to call him for the lower-rated temporary vacancy. We will therefore sustain the claim."
Award Number 19497 Page 2
Docket Number CL-19408
Award 19362 (Devine) has also been cited to us:
"Claims of this nature have been before the Board on
numerous occasions and while the awards appear to be
somewhat in conflict, we consider the better reasoned
ones as those sustaining the claim of the Petitioner
and rejecting the 'volunteer' theory, such as 9106,
10775, 13679, 17235 and 17618. We will sustain the
claim."
These Awards would normally be persuasive; however, the record in
this dispute shows that the parties under this Agreement have had a long
standing written understanding on the method of overtime payment in situations covered by the claim.
"If, on the other hand, a man works overtime because his
seniority within the district entitles him to prior rights
to the overtime and it is not part of his regular work, he
shall be paid overtime at the rate of the job on which he
works overtime."
This understanding consitutes a local agreed-to interpretation of
the rule a;:d we can do nothing but follow it here and deny the claim.
_rIN_')7NCS: 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.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST:
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 17th day of November 1972.