Parties to said dispute waived right of appearance at hearing thereon.
Under Rule 20, crews not assigned to fixed headquarters are assigned to a Signal Supervisor's territory and may be used at any of the Carrier's locations, as conditions require. Further, the work day of each employee begins and ends at the hotel/motel where lodged, and it is the responsibility of the individual employee to report to such headquarters at the starting time of the assignment. No time or mileage is to be allowed for such traveling.
At the conclusion of the workday on July 3, 1991, the crew in Carroll, Iowa was advised of a headquarters' move to Lusk, Wyoming on Monday, July 8, 1991, the next regular assigned work date.
In order to comply with the instruction, the employees travelled to Lusk on Sunday, July 7, an unassigned work day.
The Claimants were denied payment for the time required to report to Lusk, Wyoming in the amount of 11 hours.
In its denial, the Carrier urged that: "The $10 or $12 allowance per day for each member of the crew on top of actual expenses was put in the rule to offset the travel time." Moreover, the Carrier asserts that since the agreement went into effect in 1985, travel crews have never received time or mileage when moving from location to location which has occurred "...hundreds of times since the inception of this rule which in essence created the 'Traveling' crew."
The Organization submitted numerous documents tending to support its claim in this regard. However, the Carrier replied that the submitted Daily Work Reports all dealt with cases where time or mileage was paid because " ..travel took place during normal work hours or as part of their normal work day" which, of course, is not the circumstance before us in this record.
Apparently, at one isolated time, certain payments were made, allegedly in error, which was subsequently corrected.
Rule 20 is clear that the work day of each employee begins and ends at the hotel/motel where lodged, and it is the responsibility 2f the individual employee t=c report tQ such headquarters a, the starting time of his assignment. NQ time g-r mileage ii 12 ha allowed for such traveling. Past practice is not pertinent to alter the specific terms of an agreement, but it may be considered to show the intention of the parties. However, here, the Carrier has raised the assertion that the work reports submitted by the Organization all dealt with travel during normal work hours. I