NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

Award Number 19716

THIRD DIVISION Docket Number CL-19847

Benjamin Rubenstein, Referee

(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, ( Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employee PARTIES TO DISPUTE: (Southern Railway Company

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-7125) that:

(a) Carrier violated the Agreement at Knoxville, Tennessee when it removed Chief Caller Mr. H. E. Wood from service for alleged failure to properly call the crew to protect a Special Train scheduled to leave Knoxville at 1:00 p.m. Friday, December 26, 1969.

(b) Mr. Wood shall now be compensated at his daily rate of pay for each work day he was held out of service beginning December 26, 1969, until he was restored to service on February 17, 1970,

OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant had been in Carrier's service about thirty-two
years. On December 26, 1969, while working as Chief Caller
at Knoxville, Tennessee, he was removed from service for failure to properly call
a crew for a special passenger train due to depart Knoxville at 1:00 P.M., as
result of which the crew reported late for duty, and the special train departed
Knoxville at 1:09 P.M., instead of 1:00 P.M., as scheduled. Following claimant's
removal from service, investigation was conducted in accordance with Rule 40 of
the applicable agreement. He was reinstated to service on February 11, 1970,
and reported for his assignment on February 17, 1970, The claim seeks pay for
time lost while out of service.

We have carefully reviewed the entire record, including the transcript of the investigation conducted on January 5, 1970. We find that none of the claimant's substantive procedural rights were violated. Discipline was warranted but considering the nature of the offense, the results thereof, and claimant's years of service with apparently no prior discipline, the length of time he was withheld from service was excessive to the extent of being arbitrary. Thirty days suspension should have been ample discipline. We will award that claimant be compensated for all time lost in excess of thirty days up to February 11, 1970. The time lost subsequent to February 11, 1970, was apparently of claimant's own volition,

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Award Number 19716 Page 2

Docket Number CL-19847

FINDIIGS: The Third D=vision of the Adjustment Hoard, 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 end Employes within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1_;'~;

That this L :z:.ion of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the
dispute involved herc_n; end

That the discipline imposed was excessive.

A W A $ D

Claim sustained to the extent indicated in Opinion and Findings.

NATIO:TNL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

By Order of ?bird Division

ATTEST: Executive Se-i-etEz-y

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

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