Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 28652
THIRD DIVISION Docket No. SG-28729
91-3-89-3-106
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Joseph A. Sickles when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Union Pacific Railroad Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim on behalf of the General Committee of the
Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen on the Union
Pacific Railroad Company (UP):
On behalf of R. E. Lee for four hours pay at his pro-rata rate of
pay, account of Carrier violated the current Signalmen's Agreement, as
amended, particularly the Scope Rule, when it allowed or permitted a
Communication employee to install equipment at D.E.D. - H.W.L. detector
equipment, on January 9, 1986." Carrier file 8705226.
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 were given due notice of hearing thereon.
As Third Party in Interest, the Internasional Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers was advised of the pendency of the dispute, filed a
Submission with the Division, and appeared at the Referee hearing.
This case involves a jurisdictional dispute over work surrounding the
installation of so-called "talk-on" hot box detector equipment.
The Organization asserts that thb notification was always performed
through a signal system historically and traditionally installed and maintained by employees represe
Carrier denies that installation and maintenance of radios is
reserved to the Organization.
The IBEW appeared as a Third Party participant and claimed exclusive
rights to the work pursuant to its Agreement and cited Second Division Award
7774 and Award 1 of Public Law Board No. 3828.
Form 1 Award No. 28652
Page 2 Docket No. SG-28729
91-3-89-3-106
Repeated reviews of the record as well as the cited authority compels
the conclusion that there is simply no easy solution to this question.
Award No. 1 of Public Law Board No. 3828 (dated May 20, 1986) cites
Second Division Award 7774 but makes no reference to Award 4, Public Law Board
3622 (dated January 20, 1986) concerning a different Carrier.
Public Law Board 3622 was cited and relied upon by the Organization
from the outset of this dispute. The Agreement there, as here, referred to installing detector devic
transmit the warning signal to the train crew instead of a flashing light and
that it did not change the sole purpose of the detector system, but was merely
a technological advancement. It considered and dismissed the IBEW's Third
Party contention similar to the one presented here.
The Carrier, of course, argues that neither Organization has
exclusive jurisdiction over the work and it may assign same as it sees fit.
We are pursuaded by the conclusions set forth in Award 4 of PLB 3622
and its subsequent Interpretation and we will sustain the Claim.
The record raises the fact that the Claimant was fully employed at
the time and that no monetary damages should be awarded. Without departing
from the concepts outlined in Third Division Award 19899, we recognize that
this is a close case and Carrier was faced with the difficult and conflicting
jurisdictional Claim. Thus we will decline to order compensation.
A W A R D
Claim sustained in accordance with the Findings.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
Attest: ~r
a~ D -Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 29th day of January 1991.