NATIONAL RAILROkD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
T117I~D DIVISION Docket Number M-23833
john 13. L&Rocco, Referee
(Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
Union PacifLc Railroad Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
(1) The Agreement was violated when outside forces were used to
construct 'signal mounds' west of Laramie, Wyoming on the Wyoming Division
(Carrier's File 013-210-52).
(2) The Agreement was further violated when the Carrier did not
give the General Chairman prior written notification of its plan to assign said
work to outside forces.
(3)
Because of the aforesaid violations, all roadway equipment
operators, holding seniority as such on the Wyoming Division during the claim
period, each be allowed pay at their respective rates for an equal proportionate
share of the total number of man-hours expended by outside forces retroactive
sixty
(60)
days from August
25, 1979."
OPINION OF BOARD:
In this case, the Carrier has frankly admitted that it
failed to give the Organization notice (as required by
Rule 52) of its intent to contract out work
involving
the construction of
signal mounds. The Organization urges us to award the claimants (who are members
of Group
19
of the Roadway Equipment Operators on the Wyoming Division) pay for
the number of hours performed by the outside forces for the period from sixty
days prior to August 25,
1979
to approximately September
4, 1979.
The Carrier attempted to justify its failure to give notice under
Rule 52 by contending that: the disputed work is not exclusively reserved to
Maintenance of Way employes and because all the Carrier's roadway equipment
was being utilized on other projects.
None of the Carrier's explanations are adequate to excuse the lack of
prior notice. Rule 52 uses the mandatory term "shall" and notice is required
regardless of whether or not the erection of earth mounds for signal facilities
is historically, traditionally, and customarily performed by Maintenance of Way
employes. Third Division Awards No.
18687
(Rimer) and No.
18305
(Dugan). The
carrier has clearly violated Rule 52 of the applicable agreement. The lack of
notice foreclosed the organization from exercising its option to request a
meeting to discuss the propriety of contracting out the disputed work.
A long line of Third Division Awards precludes us from providing the
claimants with pecuniary relief where they have not proved loss of work
opportunity or loss of earnings due to the Carrier's failure to tender the
required notice unless the Carrier has flagrantly or repeatedly failed to
:ward Number 23578
docket Number
W-23833
Page 2
comply with Rule
52.
See Third Division Awards No.
23354
(Dennis); No.
21646
(Abler); No. 20275 (Eischen) No. 20671 (Eischen); No.
18305
(Dugan). In this
case, we do not find any evidence of a malicious motive underlying the Carrier's
failure to give the Rule 52 notice.
While we must deny the claimant's request for monetary damages, we
expect the Carrier, in the future, to fully and properly comply with the Rule
52 notice provisions.
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 in accordance with the opinion.
NATIONAL RAIZROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST: Acting Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment
Board
By
o fe~rie I3rasch -Administrative Assistant
Dated at ChicaE;o, Illinois, this 10th day of March lyP2.