NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOMB)
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number MW-20764
Francis X. Quinn, Referee
(Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Norfolk and Western Railway.Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood
that:
(1) The Carrier violated the Agreement when it failed, within
the thirty (30) day time limit as provided therein, to take action upon
the application of Trackman Charles E. Russell and thereafter, without
affording him the benefit of other rules thereunder, arbitrarily removed
and dismissed him from all service. (System File MW-CTM-72-3)
(2) Charles E. Russell now be restored to service with all
seniority and vacation rights unimpaired and he be made whole for all
wage loss suffered since August 18, 1972.
OPINION OF BOARD: The Carrier has the right to determine whether or not
its employees are physically capable of performing
their duties and to remove them from service when it is determined that
they are not so capable.
In the instant case, the parties have agreed to an established
procedural remedy in the form of medical arbitration and the claimant
failed to avail himself of that remedy. Therefore, we will deny the claim.
FINDINGS: 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
Award Number 20652 page 2
Docket Number MW-20764
That the Agreement was not violated.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST:
Executive
4/1
S
Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 21st day of March 1975.