NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number MW-25024
Paul C. Carter, Referee
(Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Seaboard System Railroad
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
(1) The dismissal of Trackman E. FZuellen for violation of "Rules 11,
17 and part of 18" was excessive and disproportionate to the offense with which
charged (System File 37-SCL-81-30/12-39(82-1001) K3J.
(2) The claimant shall be reinstated with seniority and all other rights
unimpaired and he shall be compensated for all wage loss suffered.
OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant was employed as a trackman. On September 16, 1981,
he was working on Extra Gang No. 5373, which gang was engaged
in transporting rail between Woodland and Talbottom, Georgia.
Claimant engaged in a vulgar, crude, and obscene conversation about the
private life of another employe in the gang, resulting in rock throwing between
the two employes, and Claimant finally receiving a knife wound in the back. The
Carrier describes the cut as "fifteen inches long, one inch deep, and three inches
wide." Claimant was assisted to his feet by the foreman, taken to a doctor and
then to a hospital.
Following an investigation conducted on September 30, 1981, a transcript
of which has been made a part of the record, Claimant was dismissed from service
effective September 16, 1981, the date of the occurrence.
Carrier's Rules 11, 17 and 18 of the Safety Rules for Engineering and
Maintenance of Way Employes read:
"11. Scuffling, horseplay, practical jokes and all
conduct of a similar nature either on or off duty,
while on Company property, are prohibited."
"17. Profane, indecent or abusive language is prohibited."
"18. Disloyalty, dishonesty, desertion, intemperance,
immorality, vicious or uncivil conduct, insubordination, sleeping on duty, incompetency, making
false statements, or concealing facts concerning
matters under investigation, will subject the offender
to dismissal."
Award Number 24910 Page 2
Docket Number MW-25024
Without detailing the language used by the Claimant, suffice it to say
that it was such that simply cannot be condoned in any work force. There is no
proper basis for the Board to interfere with the discipline imposed.
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.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
Attest:
N04
J. Dever - Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 30th day of July 1984.