(Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes PARTIES TO DISPUTE:

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood

"1. The Bureau arbitrarily and in an unjust manner violated Rule 2, among others, of the agreement on March 25, 1981 when it awarded the position of Secretary in the Chicago District Office to a non-employe over an employe, Mrs. Diane Otten.
2. The Bureau shall now be required to assign and transfer Mrs. Diane Otten to the position of Secretary and pay her the rate of pay of that position in addition to any other pay she may have received during this same period. This pay is to begin on March 25, 1981 and is to continue until this violation is corrected."
OPINION OF BOARD: On March 5, 1981, the Bureau bulletined a Secretary
 position in its Chicago District. Claimant D.
 Otten bid for the position. On March 25, 1981, the position was awarded
 to M. A. Hynes, a non-employee at the time. The instant claim was
 filed to protest the Bureau's failure to award the disputed Secretary
 position to Claimant Otten.
Rule 2(h) of the Agreement provides that employees filing applications for bulletined position "will, if they possess sufficient fitness and ability, be given preference on seniority basis over nonemployees." It is clear that emp preference over those who are not. However, it is no less clear that the requirement they be given such preference is conditional. They are entitled to such preference only "if they possess sufficient fitness and ability" to perform the job in question.
Thus, the critical question here is whether Claimant Otten had "sufficient fitness and ability" to perform the disputed Secretary position.
Claimant is an experienced Secretary. She is proficient in typing and shorthand. She had held a number of secretarial positions. Over the years, she has obtained appointments to positions with increased responsibility. In 1977, she became Adminstrative Assistant to the (then) Director of Labor Relations, R. C. Kniewel. He retired in April 1980. The following month, Claimant Otten began a medical leave of








_-asuodsaz ,qeqtd os, a buzaq, se pazrzaqoezLqo sem qeqq oil uorq0eaz jay -paqonpuoD ail pTnoM 6uTZeaq uozqPozgrIenbsrp P qeqq pauzeM

























qOTZqsrG aqq oil hzeqazaa$ se ruzogzad oil liqrTrqp aqq pPq aaeq PTnoqs ails saqeOTPUT PZOOGZ ZaaZPO s,quPmrPTD GTTqA 7Pqq sqzassp neazng aqy












                    Locket Number CL-25706


The Organization simply has not met its burden of proof here. It has failed to convince us that the Bureau's decision should be set aside. No valid ground for doing so has been established.
        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.


                        AWARD


        Claim denied.


                          NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                          By Order of Third Division


        Attest , Nancy J. lD"Ver - Executive Secretary


        Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 30th day of September 1985.