Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 28227
THIRD DIVISION Docket No. SG-27323
89-3-86-3-437
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Edward L. Suntrup when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim on behalf of the General Committee of the Brotherhood of Railr
Railroad Company (B&LE):
On behalf of Brother R. D. Flinn for 2 hours and 40 minutes pay at
his punitive rate of pay account of the Carrier violated the Signalmen's
Agreement, particularly, the Scope Rule, when it allowed or permitted Electrician Tom Burrows (IBEW
supply at Odell on November 18, 1984."
FINDINGS:
The Third Division of the Adjustment Board upon the whole record
and all the evidence, finds that:
The carrier or carriers and the employe or employes involved in this
dispute are respectively carrier and employes within the meaning of the
Railway Labor Act as approved June 21, 1934.
This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the
dispute involved herein.
Parties to said dispute waived right of appearance at hearing thereon.
As Third Party in Interest, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was advised of t
Submission with the Division.
On December 20, 1984, a claim was filed on grounds that an employee
not covered under the Agreement between the Carrier and the Organization
performed signal work in violation of the Scope Rule.
The evidence of record shows that on November 17, 1984, the Claimant
turned off an air compressor to permit an electrician to make electrical repairs to a transformer. A
Form 1 Award No. 28227
Page 2 Docket No. SG-27323
89-3-86-3-437
The Carrier argues that other employees in the past have operated
switches and pushbuttons at signal facilities and that such has been a
bilateral right between crafts and/or departments. The Organization, on the
other hand, argues that work related to power lines extending to components
inside a compressor case is Signalman's work covered by that portion of Scope
Rule 1 which states the following:
"Also the repair and maintenance, construction,
reconstruction and installation, as performed
with Signal Division forces, of devices included
in the following signal apparatus and systems,
when required exclusively for the operation of
the above railroad signaling and interlocking
systems:---
High tension and other lines overhead or
underground from circuit breaker
Poles and fixtures
Wood, fibre, iron or clay conduit systems
Bonding of rail
Transformers
Arresters"
A study of the record does not provide sufficient evidence of probative value to determine if th
Scope Rule in the instant case. Without ruling, therefore, on whether the
work in question belongs to this craft, the Board can conclude that the work
involved was of such minimal amount that it falls under de minimus doctrine
and that such doctrine can be reasonably applied here. In this regard the
Board cites with favor the language from Second Division Award 8360 which is
applicable here:
...(the work must be) considered incidental and
de minimus. To hold otherwise, we believe,
would seriously and unduly hamper the efficiency
of the operations of the Carrier, without providing any meaningful or necessary protections
to the highly significant and legitimate duties
which are, and will remain, the exclusive province of (this) craft..."
A W A R D
Claim denied.
Form 1 Award No. 28227
Page 3 Docket No. SG-27323
89-3-86-3-437
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
Attest:
ancy J. e r - Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 4th day of December 1989.