NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number CL-24633
Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks,
PARTIES TO DISPUTE: Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes
Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-9645)
that:
1. Carrier violated the Clerks' Rules Agreement when it utilized Extra Board Clerk T. J.
Collins, to work as extra Train Order Clerk October 7, 1981, and then refused to compensate her purs
to Rule 31(a) of the Agreement.
2. Carrier shall now be required to compensate Clerk T. J. Collins an additional four (4) hours
and fifty (50) minutes pay at pro-rata rate as required by Rule 31(a) of the Agreement.
OPINION OF BOARD: On October
7,
1981, Carrier called Claimant, an Extra Board
Clerk, to work as Extra Train Order Clerk. Claimant reported at 4:00 p.m. and
worked until 7:10 P.m. when she was relieved from duty. She received pay for 3 hours and 10 minutes.
Claimant demanded pay for eight hours, or an additional four hours and fifty minutes.
Rule 31(a) states:
"(a) Day's Work - Except as otherwise provided in this rule, eight (8)
consecutive hours or less, exclusive of the meal period, shall constitute a day's
work for which eight (8) hours' pay will be allowed.
The Carrier maintains that it is not required to pay any additional monies because Claimant bid
and was assigned to a 16-day monthly guarantee Extra Board working as Operator, Train Order Clerk an
Train Director. During the month of October, Claimant was called and used from this Extra Board for
various assignments. She worked the equivalent of
16
days, 27 hours and 40 minutes and earned $1,455.55.
Since the guarantee Extra Board minimum of
16
days yields $1,379.84, the Carrier claims that it is not
required to pay any additional monies. The Carrier cites Rule 34 as an exception to the 8 hours' pay
by Rule 31(a).
Rule 34 deals with situations where employes are notified or called to perform work not
continuous with, before or after the regular work period in which case they are allowed a minimum of
hours' pay for two hours' work or less.
The awards of the Third Division have upheld the principle that "where the contract is plain
and unambiguous, no basis for construction exists". (Award 3050). "This Board must be bound by the c
language of an Agreement. We
Award Number
24306
Docket Number
CL-24633
Page 2
cannot read into (the Agreement) anything except what it sets out in unmistakable
clarity" (Award
10239).
This Board is not persuaded that the admitted facts of this case come
within the exception to the eight hour rule enunciated in Rule
31(0).
As it has
stated, "we will not read an exception into the Agreement where there is none".
(Award
19081).
The Board
is of the opinion that Organization sustained its burden of
proof and therefore its claim is sustained.
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.
Attest: Acting Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment Board
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
cEi
vEo
Rosemarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant f~if.~
2 ;~$3
Dated' at Chicago, Illinois, this 14th day of April
1983. ~Chc _4~
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Offices