NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJWTDF.PT BOLD
THIRD DIVI:1ION Docket Number CL-21619
Robert W. Smedley, Referee
(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and
( Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers,
( Express and Station Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(The Belt Railway Company of Chicago
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood
(GL-8112) that:
1. The Carrier violated and continues to violate the rules
of the effective Clerks' Agreement when, commencing on or about
February 10, 1975, it required and/or permitted employes outside the
scope of the Agreement to perform work reserved exclusively for
employes fully covered thereby.
2. The Carrier shall now be required to compensate the
following named employes for eight
(8)
hours' pay at the time and
one-half rate of an Industrial Information Clerk position for each
of the dates enumerated below:
J. Slowinski - February 10,
13,
17, 20, 21, 24, 27,
March
3,
6, 7 and
13,
1975
J. Bowens -February 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26, March
4, 5, ll, 12,
18
and 19, 1975;
R..Zahorcik - February 16,
23,
March
2,
9 and 16, 1975;
A. DeSouza -February 14,
28
and March 14, 1975
3.
The Carrier shall now be required to compensate the
senior available off-duty employe for eight
(8)
hours' pay at the
tine
and one-half rate of an Industrial Information Clerk position
for each and every date subsequent to those listed in part 2 hereof,
that a like violation occurs. Claimants and dates to be determined
by a joint check of the Carrier's records.
Award Number 21866 Page 2
Docket Number CL-21619
OPINION OF BOARD: The complaint is that supervisors Rodriguez and
McCray performed clerks' duties in searching
computerized records for errors.
That the work was supervisory in nature is best illustrated
by the following statement in the employes' rebuttal brief:
"Essentially, the work that is being performed
by Messrs. McCray and Rodriguez is tracing of
cars.for incorrect records."
The employes then argue that this is obviously routine clerical work.
We would agree, if proven, that supervisors cannot be permitted to
supplant the scope agreement. Clerical work, including "looking for
errors. "-belongs to the clerks. But that is not to say that
supervisors cannot also look. The very essence of supervision is to
look into the bowels of the pperation when time and opportunity
permits. The evidence is that the supervisors found some errors and
issued reprimands therefor. Clerks were also assigned to assist
this effort, and did.
The assertion that the supervisors took over clerks'
duties fails for lack of proof under this record, unless we were to
hold, which we cannot, that a supervisor can never do a clerk's chore,
even on a spot-check basis. See Awards 16452 (Dugan) and 20290
(Sickles) and awards cited therein.
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
The agreement was not violated.
Award Number 21866 Page 3
Docket Number CL-21619
Claim denied.
NATIaRAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST:
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 31st day of January 1978.