( Express and Station Employes PARTIES TO DISPUTE:

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood,

1. Carrier violated the Agreement between the parties when it failed to substantially prove Mr. C. Boyer guilty of insubordination, and in abuse of discretion dismissed Claimant based on said charges and subsequently changed the dismissal to a 10-day suspension. .

 2. Carrier shall compensate Mr. Boyer for all wages and other losses for each day he was held out of service with 6% interest for all , back pay.

 OPINION OF BOARD: Following an investigation held on December 19,
 1974, Claimant was found responsible for being insubordinate account he refused to comply with instructions of Yardmaster Hansen and Assistant Trainmaster Hetherington while working the 23CO P14C Checker assignment on December 6, 1974. Claimant was dismissed from service as a result of his insubordination but the dismissal was subsequently reduced to a ten-day suspension.

 The facts adduced at the investigation evidence that on the morning of December 6, 1974, Claimant was ordered to make a complete check of the PON Train Yard. However, due to the hazardous condition
 of the Yard following a major snow storm that had occurred on December 1, j
 1974, Claimant advised his supervisors that it was physically impossible
 to make a complete check of the Yard because of drifting snow. Yet
 Hansen and Hetherington insisted that he check the Yard which he
 refused to do. It is undisputed that nearly 20 inches of snow had
 fallen on the City of Pontiac on December 1, 1974, completely paralyzing
 the City.

 A thorough reading of the record before us compels this Board to conclude that Claimant's decision not to check the PON Train Yard on December 6, 1974 was based on a well-founded and sincere fear for his physical well-being. In the light of the circumstances existing in the Yard on December 6, 1974, we hold that Carrier exceeded acceptable limits


in assessing Claimant with any discipline. Accordingly, we shall sustain the claim save for that segment thereof requesting interest on any back pay award to Claimant.

        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

        That the Agreement was violated.


                      A W A R D

                                        N


Claim sustained except as to interest on the back pay awarded Claimant.

                          NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                          By Order of Third Division


ATTEST:
        Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 19th day of May 1977.

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