The following claim is hereby presented to the Company on behalf of Claimant(s), J. Brown, M. Jerew, J. Heilig, S. Leonardo, J. Brown, J. Kircher, and W. Jennings.

(a) The Carrier violated the July 21, 1972, as revised AmtrakCorporate Clerical Rules Agreement, par and other Rules, when it assigned and permitted non-agreement Supervisor W. Coates, M. Hollister, R. Raglan, L. Fisher, M. Etheridge, A. Mears, and B. Boelger to perform the duties of Ticket Clerk/Usher Gateman (Announcements; Ticket Collection; Exchange/issue Boarding Passes; and Answering Customer Inquiries) for train 246 at 7:05 on February 27, 1996, located at ALB/RENSS Station Rensselaer, NY and failed to call and use Claimants) J. Brown, M. Jerew, J. Heilig, S. Leonardo, J. Brown, J. Kircher and W. Jennings to perform that work on that day;

(b) Claimants) J. Brown, M. Jerew, J. Heilig, S. Leonardo, J. Brown, J. Kircher and W. Jennings should now each be allowed eight hours pay at the appropriate punitive rate for February 27, 1996, on account of this violation;

-400

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.

On February 28 and 29,1996, theCarrier utilized several management employees to assist in testing "ticket-less travel." By letter of April 18,1996, the Organization filed the above-quoted claim, in which it alleged that those Managers were performing work properly reserved to Clerks - specifically making "announcements, ticket collection, exchang[ing] and issu[ing] boarding passes, and answering customer inquiries." In its initial denial on June 3, 1996, the Carrier stated that the event at issue was a trial test of a contemplated future boarding pass system. It noted that the Organization had been notified of the test and asserted that the Managers had not performed any work that is normally and customarily reserved to Clerks. The denial was appealed and subsequently progressed up to and including conference on the property, after which it remained unresolved.

In subsequent correspondence, the Carrier maintained that the work done on the two days in question was simply a trial run. The management personnel cited in the claim were giving instructions to the passengers concerning the test program and exchanged tickets already purchased by customers for boarding passes. The Carrier asserted that Clerks have not historically lifted tickets and issued boarding passes, and pointed out that many Carrier employees besides Agreement covered employees are called upon to answer passenger questions over the course of a workday.

The Board has carefully reviewed the correspondence and the evidence presented in this case. The job descriptions contained in the bulletins offered by the Organization do not constitute probative evidence that the dissemination of information to passengers is a duty reserved exclusively to Clerks. It is unrefuted on this record and conceptually logical that all Carrier employees having any contact with the public whatsoever would, at one time or another, be expected to answer customer questions. While responsibility for disseminating information is one element of the job descriptions presented, that in itself does not constitute proof that such responsibility is the exclusive province of Clerks.

In light of the foregoing, the Board finds that the Organization has failed to meet its burden of persuasion in this matter.