"Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-10605) that:

1. Carrier violated the effective Telegraphers' Agreement when, on and after April 12, 1990, it removed work of preparing waybills from the position of Agent at Plainfield, Illinois, and assigned such work to employees not covered thereby:

2. Carrier shall now compensate Mr. F. R. Scagnelli and/or his successor or successors in interest, namely, any other employee or employees who have stood in the status of Claimant as occupant of the position of Agent, Plainfield, and as such have been adversely affected for one (1) hour's pay at the time and one-half rate of such position for April 12, 1990, and for each and every day thereafter that a like violation occurs."

This dispute involves a claim on behalf of the Freight Agent at Plainfield, Illinois, for payment of one (1) hour of pay at the punitive rate for each day on which the Agency Sill Clerks at Gary, Indiana, perform certain work which the Organization contends belongs to the Agent and his position and which, it is contended, was improperly "transferred" from the Agent's position to the Clerks' positions.

The operative facts in this case are reasonably clear and not really in dispute. Prior to the time of these claims, the Agent at Plainfield would receive shipment information from the individual shippers from which he would manually prepare a hard-copy waybill which would accompany the shipment. At the same time that he prepared the waybill, the Agent would transmit all of the shipment information and a copy of the prepared waybill to the Carrier's Agency department at Gary where clerical employees would enter all of the information received into Carrier's computer system.

With the advent of RAILINC - an Association of American Railroads device and plan to move freight cars in interline service without accompanying paper waybills - an Electronic Data Interchange operation was established. Unde claimant Agent continued to receive the shipment information from the individual shipper, but there was now no need for him to manually prepare a paper waybill to accompany the shipment. Rather, the Agent was required only to transmit a copy of the shipper's information to the Gary Agency office where, as previously done, the clerical employee entered the information into the Electronic Data Interchange computer which, in accomplishment of the objective of moving freight cars in interline service without accompanying paper documents, transmitted all necessary information in connection with the shipment.

The organization in its presentation of this dispute point out that, on this property, the provisions of Article VIII of the National Agreement of February 25, 1971, which permitted the consolidation of Clerk-Telegraphers (Agents) Agreements was never implemented. Therefore, the Organization correctly observes that the separate Agreements of the Clerks and Telegraphers (Agents) remain in effect as written. It argues that the separate Scope Rule of the Telegrapher's (Agents) on this property prohibits the transfer of work from that craft to the clerical craft. The Organization continues its argument by contending that inasmuch as this Carrier failed to take advantage of the consolidation of Clerk-Telegrapher Rules under the aforementioned 1971 National Agreement, it is precluded in this instance from having the waybills covering shipments from the jurisdiction of the Plainfield Agent prepared by Clerks under any circumstances.

"SCOPE AND WORK OF EMPLOYES AFFECTED

ARTICLE 1 SCOPE

(a) These rules shall govern the rates of pay and working conditions of all employes engaged in the work of the craft on positions identified in paragraph (b).

(b) Positions and/or work thereof outlined below are generally representative of those within the craft or class:

Agents (included in wage scale) Agent -- Telegraphers Agent -- Telephoners

* * * * *