NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number MW-26009
(Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company (Southern Region)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
(1) The dismissal of Mr. J. 0. Sears and the thirty (30) days of
suspension imposed upon Mr. C. C. Alford for their alleged 'failure to comply
with motor car line-up resulting in damage to Motor Car 1163 and personal
injury to signal maintainer at approximately 10:30 A.M., Thursday, May 19,
1983, near M. P. 373.5, New River Sub-Division' was improper, a gross injustice
and without just and sufficient cause (System File C-D-1849/MG-4150).
(2) Claimant Sears shall be returned to service with seniority and
all other rights and benefits unimpaired; both of the claimants' records shall
be cleared and they shall be compensated for all wage loss suffered."
OPINION OF BOARD: Claimant Sears was in charge of a self-propelled Track Car,
a Track Liner Machine, which was to transfer by rail from
one of Carrier's Yards to a rendezvous point to the east; it was to be me,
by
Motor Car 1163 coming from the opposite direction, and thereupon escorted
further eastward.
Under Claimant Sears' orders the Track Car proceeded eastwardly a
mile past the authorized rendezvous and there rammed Motor Car 1163. Both
cars were being braked, but momentum of the Track Car carried it into Motor
Car 1163 after the latter had come to a standstill.
The outcome of a Board of Inquiry Investigation into the collision
was Claimant Sears' dismissal. Further, Claimant Alford, who was in Iran,;;
traveling aboard the Track Car and who possessed some experience as a Track
Car Operator, was suspended from service for 30 days.
Implicating the latter Claimant Alford in the chain of events lead:1s
up to the collision stretches reason; he was a permitted occupant of the
Track Car, exercising no control, function, or authority. With his utter li,,
of familiarity with the area, we do not see it as a reasonable decision, h~i;
an arbitrary one to find him at fault.
Claimant Sears' fault is conceded; he entered an area and was mov:·.
the Track Car where he had no authority to be.
Award Number 25950 Page 2
Docket Number MW-26009
Claimant Sears is a thirteen year employee with a clean service
record. There was some confusion as to how to interpret radioed information
he was receiving and as to how to identify the rendezvous point, particularly
under existing poor visibility due to rain. His action came from poor
information, a poor presumption, and he executed it poorly.
But permanent dismissal of Claimant Sears is excessive. We will
award that he be restored to service with seniority and other rights and
benefits unimpaired, but without compensation for time lost.
We will award that Claimant Alford be compensated for the work days
that fell within the period of suspension and that his record be cleared.
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 Emploves 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 discipline was excessive.
A W A R D
Claim sustained in accordance with the Opinion.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
Bv Order of Third Division
Attest:
04~F
Nancy J. Dev
Or-
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 14th day of March 1986.