NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

Award Number 23872

THIRD DIVISION Docket Number MS-24(65

Ids Klaus, Referee

(James R. Hall

PARTIES TO DISPUTE.

Kansas City Terminal Railway Company -

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "This is to serve notice, as required by the rules of
the National Railroad Adjustment Board; of my intention
to file an ex parte submission on (30 days from date of this notice) covering
an unadjusted dispute between me and the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company
involving the question:

claim SG-L80.140 Case # 5506."

OPINION OF BQARD: This petition is not properly before the Board and may
not be considered by us.. -

As the record discloses that the claim was not first presented on the property and that no conference at that level was requested or held, we must find that this dispute was not handled "in the usual manner" as required by Section :3, First (i), of the Railway Labor Act.

Accordingly, the Board is barred from proceeding with the merits of this claim, and the claim must be dismissed.

Numerous awards of the Board over the years have established that the Railway Labor Act vests authority in this Board to consider and decide the merits of a dispute only after the prerequisite statutory procedure on the property has bees followed.

The plain purpose of the statutory requirement is to encourage the parties themselves in informal face-to-face conference discussion on the property to arrive at their own adjustment of the dispute in an amicable way at the earliest possible time. Whey these efforts fail, then the right of formal referral of the dispute to this Board becomes available to the parties. That right is not now available to the petitioner.

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, 193+;

Award Number 23872 page 2

Docket Number MS-21+065

That this Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein; and

That the claim is barred.

A W A R D

Claim dismissed.

NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

By Order of Third Division

Attest: Acting Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment Board

BY ~~ _
. Rosemarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant

Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 13th day of May, 1982.

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