NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number CL-22473
George S. Roukis, Referee
(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and
( Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers,
( Express and Station Employes
PARTIES To DISPUTE:
(St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood
(GL-8531) that:
1. Carrier violated the Agreement between the parties when on
March 21, 1977, it required an employee not covered by the telegraphers'
schedule to perform agency work at Van Buren, Arkansas.
2. Carrier shall now be required to allow one day's pay to
Mr. G. E. Barham, who was the regular assigned agent/telegrapher at the
time of the abolishment of the position at Van Buren, Arkansas.
3. Carrier violated the Agreement between the parties when on
March 29, 1977, it required or permitted Mr. W. 0. Evans, a Sales
Representative, to sign bills of lading from Farmland Industries, Inc.
at Van Buren, Arkansas.
4.
Carrier shall now be required to allow Mr. G. E. Barham,
who was the regular assigned agent telegrapher at that location when
the position was abolished, an additional day's pay.
OPINION OF BOARD: Pursuant to lawful authority from the State, Carrier
closed its Van Buren, Arkansas Station and trans
ferred the terminal services, previously there provided, to its Fort
Smith, Arkansas Terminal effective close of business, March 19, 1977.
Thereafter, on March 21, 1977 and March 29, 1977 certain
Carrier work was required in Van Buren.
On March 21, 1977 Carrier required a check of cars on tracks
at Van Buren and instructed a clerical employe at its Fort Smith
Terminal to obtain same as was the practice with outlying points falling
under the Fort Smith Agency.
Award Number
22543
Page
2
Docket Number
Ch-22473
On March
29, 1977,
a sales representative signed a shipper's
bill of lading when he called on Farmland Industries, Inc., at Van Buren.
The March
21
and
29, 1977,
incidents are the subject of the
claims now before us.
The Organization bases its claims on the line of awards
involving one-man stations wherein this Board and others, have held that
"all the work of a one-man station belongs to the agent at that location."
See e.g., Award
6
of SBA
405
and Third Division Award No.
217
between
these same parties.
Carrier resists the claims asserting that the work of checking
cars and signing bills of lading is not the exclusive work of
telegraphers.
A review of the record, the arguments of the parties, and
awards cited in support of the parties' respective positions, leads us
to conclude that employes reliance on the one-man station principle is
misplaced here.
Inasmuch as the Employes failed to meet the burden of proof
relative to showing that the performance of work in the two cited
instances violated their agreement, the claims are denied.
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 not violated.
Award Number 22543 Page 3
Docket Number CL-22473
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST:
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 28th day of September 1979.