(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline sad Steamship Clerks,
 ( Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes
 PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
 (Southern Freight Tariff Bureau

(a) The Bureau violated the Rules of the controlling Agreement and in particular Rule 32 and the Seniority Rules when the Bureau failed to allow Claimant T. G. Wade to perform overtime work on February 5, 1977.

 (b) The Bureau shall now be required to compensate the claimant eight (8) hours pay at one and one-half time his pro rata rate for February 5, 1977.

 OPINION OF BOARD: Before getting to the merits of the instant claim, we must
 dispose of the Organization's contentions that the claim
 stands to .be allowed as presented account the Bureau failing to timely deny the
 claim at one of the appeal levels established by the Agreement.

 The facts in the record develop that the claim was appealed to the Bureau's Tariff Publishing Officer on June 10, 1977. Subsequent to that date a flurry of correspondence occurred connected with the setting of an agreeable date
 for a conference on the claim. A conference was not set within the time limits - I
 established in the Agreement and these time limits were not specifically extended
 by agreement; nor did the Bureau specifically deny the claim in writing within
 the allotted time. On November 9, 1977 the organization notified the Bureau that
 the claim had not been answered within the 60-day time limit provided in the Agree
 ment and asked that the claim be allowed as presented.
Article V of the August 21, 1954 National Agreement. Thus, it is to be allowed ~_
 as presented. The fact that the claim was not discussed in a conference within
 the time limits or the fact that a conference was set beyond the date the time
 limits expired does not, without specific agreement to the contrary, toll or extend
 the time limits of the Agreement.

 The claim will be sustained on the time limit violation. We do not deal with the merits of 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

        That the Agreement was violated.


                      A W A R D


        Claim sustained.


                            NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                            By Order of Third Division


ATTEST:
          Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 15th day of December 1980. `

                                      i~