Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 32529
Docket No. CL-32914
98-3-96-3-279
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee
Elizabeth C. Wesman when award was rendered.
(Transportation Communications International Union
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(CSX Transportation, Inc. (former Seaboard Coast
( Line Railroad Company)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim of the System Committee of the Organization (GL-11220) that:
1. Carrier violated the Agreement on December 3, 1994, when it failed
to call Claimant F. R. Nalley, ID 196907, to fill Position No. 101, but
instead Carrier diverted Clerk R. L. Smith to protect the vacancy
since no Specialists were available to protect the vacancy.
2. Carrier shall compensate Claimant eight (8) hours' pay at the
applicable rate for the above-cited violation."
FINDINGS:
The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the
evidence, finds that:
The carrier or carriers and the employee or employees involved in this dispute
are respectively carrier and employee 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.
Form I Award No. 32529
Page 2 Docket No. CL-3291.1
98-3-96-3-279
At issue in this case are Rule 18 and Rule 67 (Addendum No. 3) of the Agreement
between the Parties. Those Rules read in pertinent part as follows:
"RULE 18 - USE OF UNASSIGNED OR EXTRA BOARD EMPLOYEES
(d) When filling short vacancies occasioned by failure of the
regularly assigned relief employee to report for duty, the following
procedure will be observed, in the order shown:
1. By use of unassigned employees who have not completed forty
(40) hours in that week, as provided for in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this
rule.
2. By the employee who works the job five (5) days per week, if
he desires the work.
RULE 67-(Addendum No. 3) Vacations
(b) Where work of vacationing employees is distributed among
two (2) or more employees such employees will be paid their own
respective rates. However, not more than the equivalent of twenty-five
(25) percent of the work load of a given vacationing employee can be
distributed among fellow employees without hiring a relief worker unless
a larger distribution of the work load is agreed to by the proper local union
committee or official."
On the date in question, the incumbent of Position No. 4EL0-101, Customer
Service Representative, was observing a day of vacation. Carrier opted not to fill the
vacancy, but to distribute the absent employee's work among other employees. The
Form 1 Award No. 32529
Page 3 Docket No. CL-32914
98-3-96-3-279
Organization filed a claim on December 5, 1994 in which it maintained that Claimant
should have been called at the overtime rate to fill the vacancy on Position No. 4EL0-101.
For reasons not clear on this record, throughout the processing on the property,
the Carrier never disputed the Organization's claim that more than 25°/6
of
the
vacationing employee's work had been distributed among the remaining employees.
Although Carrier belatedly alleged in its Submission to the Board that less than 25°/6
of
the work at issue was distributed, nowhere in the on-property correspondence did it
refute the Organization's position. Thus, the Board has no choice but to find the Carrier
in violation
of
the Rules cited.
Accordingly, the instant claim is sustained. There is no evidence that Claimant
is entitled to other than the straight time rate, however, for the eight hours claimed.
AWARD
Claim sustained in accordance with the Findings.
ORDER
This Board, after consideration
of
the dispute identified above, hereby orders that
an award favorable to the Claimant(s) be made. The Carrier is ordered to make the
Award effective on or before 30 days following the postmark date the Award is
transmitted to the parties.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order
of
Third Division
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 25th day
of
March 1998.