(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
 PARTIES TO DISPLM:
 (The Kansas City Southern Railway Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the General Committee of the Brotherhood
 of Railroad Signalmen on the Kansas City Southern
 Railway Company:
In behalf of Signal Maintainer D. R. Troth that his record be cleared of any reference to the charges and compensate him for all monetary loss sustained September 30, through October 9, 1974. Carrier's File: 013.31-16)

 OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant herein was charged with refusal to report
 for duty after being instructed by dispatcher
 (through an operator) to cover a switch failure. After hearing and
 investigation, Claimant was suspended ten days for failure to report for
 duty.
The Organization asserts that Claimant was charged with one offense and disciplined for another. The Board is of the opinion that the Organization's contention is without merit.
The underlying reasons for the requirement that a charge be specific is to provide an employe and his representatives an opportunity to prepare a defense and to avoid surprise at a hearing. In this connection the terms "failure to report" and "realising to report" are sufficiently synonymous so that the underlying reasons referred to above have been satisfied, and Claimant was not prejudiced thereby.




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.


                  A W A R D


        Claim denied.


                        NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                        By Order of Third Division


ATTEST:
        Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 31st day of January 1978.