NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

Award Number 19709

THIRD DIVISION Docket Number MS-19816

Irwin M. Lieberman, Referee

(Paul Wharton PARTIES TO DISPUTE:

(Norfolk and Western Railway Company

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: This is to serve notice, as required by the rules of the
National Railroad Adjustment Board, of my intention to file an Ex-Parts submission on June 2, 1972, covering an unadjusted dispute between me and the Norfolk and Western Railway Company involving, the question:

Claim for Difference in Rates of Pay

between Computer Operator (rate of $897.33 monthly on J::nuary 1971) and O,S.&D. Clerk (rate of $724.46 monthly on January 1971) beginning on January 20, 1971, and continuing until settled.

OPINION OF BOARD: This claim was filed by an individual, although the original
claim on the property was filed by the Organization. Carrier contends that this Board does not have jurisdiction over this dispute since no conference was held on the property, in accordance with Section 2, Second, of the National Railway Labor Act. The record contains no evidence that a conference was held on the property between Claimant or the Organisation and the Carrier with respect to this claim.

It is well settled by a host of Awards of this Board that a conference on the property between the parties is a mandatory prerequisite to assertion of jurisdiction. In Award 17166 we said:

"The Railway Labor Act requires that before a dispute should be appealed to the Board for a decision, the parties to the dispute should hold a conference on the property to try to reach settlement. This concept was upheld by the United States Supreme

Court The reasoning behind this provision is simple - to-ensure

that the parties meet and try to reach some agreement between them

selves in as harmonious fashion as possible. It is only after such

a meeting or conference is held and only after the parties cannot

reach agreement on the property that this Board's jurisdiction

becomes valid,"

Our determination is that this Board has no jurisdiction to hear this claim on its merits.

Award Number 19709 page Z

Docket Number MS-19816

FINDII?;S: The T'nird 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 anloyes within the m.^aning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1934;

That this Division of the Adjustment Hoard is without jurisdiction.-. over the dispute involved herein.

A W A R D

Claim dismissed.

IdATIOML RAILROAD ADJUSTI-214T BOARD

By Order of Third Division

A S'
Tr-4- I : 21
Executive Secretary

Dated at Chicclo, Illinois, this 13th day of April 1973.

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