NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Locket Number MW-25212
Paul C. Carter, Referee
(Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company
(Southern Region)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
(1) The Carrier violated the Agreement when it improperly closed the
service record of Trackman J. M. Watson, Jr. (System File C-S-1322/MG-3497).
(2) Trackman J. M. Watson, Jr. shall be returned to service with
seniority and all other rights unimpaired and he. shall be compensated for all
wage loss suffered.
OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant, with about six years of service, was on furlough
status. He was recalled to service by letter dated March 2,
1982, reading:
"As your seniority date on the Richmond Seniority
District, Va. Division, entitled you to work as trackman, you are being advised to report to the for
Force TU 222, located at Lee Hall, Va., at 7:30 a.m.,
immediately.-
Rule 2(i) of the applicable Agreement provides:
"Laborers becoming cut-off employees rather than
displace junior men elsewhere must return to the gang
on which cut off when there is as much as thirty days
work for them on that gang or forfeit all seniority.
They must report for work under such circumstances, unless
prevented by sickness or injury, within ten days after
being notified to report and begin work or forfeit all
seniority."
Claimant did not report for work within the ten days provided for in
the above-quoted rule, but reported on March 15, 1982, at which time he was
advised that he could not work because he had not reported within the time
limitation. On March 30, 1982, Claimant was notified by Carrier's Manager
Engineering:
"Due to your failure to report to the job within
the time limit, you have forfeited your seniority and
your name is, therefore, being removed from the Richmond
District of the Virginia Division Seniority Roster."
Award Number 25153 Page 2
Docket Number MW-25212
In the handling of the dispute on the property, and in its Submission
to the Board, the Organization contends that on March 4, 1982, when Claimant
received the recall notice he was incarcerated in Louisa County Jail; that the
Louisa County Sheriff permitted the Claimant to be released at 8:00 A. M., March
7, 1982, and that Claimant sent a letter to his Foreman that he could not report
for work until March 15, 1982, because of the illness of his mother. The Carrier
denies that Claimant notified any supervisory officer of his intention to report
on March 15, 1982.
The Carrier contends that Rule 2(i) contains only two exceptions to
the ten-day limitation provision, namely, sickness or injury to the employe and
that such exceptions do not apply in case of sickness of an employe's family
members.
Rule 2(i) is clear and unambiguous. Its provisions are self-executing
without handling under any other rule. Failure to comply with the rule means
the forfeiture of all seniority. The Board can only apply the rule as written,
and may not expand or enlarge upon it through the guise of an interpretation.
See Awards 10705, 13491, 20070 and 21452.
The claim will be denied.
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:
Nancy '~r - Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois this 30th day of November 1984.