There is no dispute as to the facts of the case, nor is there any dispute regarding the violation as the Carrier readily admitted its error and paid the Claimant 103 hours at the straight time rate. The dispute before the Board is the Carrier's refusal to pay the Claimant a sum equal to that earned by the employee wrongfully assigned to work in the Claimant's seniority district. The employee who did the work did perform some overtime work.
From the outset, from the Statement of Claim, the Organization seeks the equivalent of 68 hours straight time and 30 hours of overtime. Thirty hours overtime is equal to 45 hours straight time. Add 45 hours to the 68 hours equals 113 hours. The Carrier has already paid the Claimant a sum equal to 103 straight time hours. If the Carrier intended to pay only a straight time wage for all hours worked, going by the Statement of Claim, they should have paid only 98 hours, not 103. Thus, to the Board, the claim if sustainable, is good only for the equivalent of ten straight time hours.
Straight time verses time and one-half when it comes to compensation for time lost by one employee when the Agreement has been violated is an age-old argument waged over the years with various number of successes and failures, even by some arbitrators involving cases on the same Carrier involving the same arbitrator. In this instance, for guidance, the search has been for Awards on this property involving this Organization.
A review finds six Awards involving the parties here in dispute and one earlier Award involving this Organization and the former Pennsylvania Railroad that sustained payment for lost time when it included payment of the overtime rate. See Decision 433 of the Pennsylvania Railroad dated September 19, 1957, and Third Division Awards 26431, 26448, 27335, 27638, 29505 and 32107.
On the other hand, the Carrier furnished a number of Awards in support of its argument, but not one involves this Organization and this Carrier. Form 1 Page 3
Insofar as this craft is concerned, on this Carrier arbitral authority to compensate for time lost because of a Rules violation, hours worked at the overtime rate is on the side of the Organization.
The Claimant would have been paid the appropriate rate for all hours worked by the wrongfully assigned employee. That is the measurement of damages due the Claimant in this case; however, the Board cannot exceed that which is sought in the Statement of Claim that is before the Board. The Claimant is due the equivalent of ten straight time hours over and above that which he has already been paid.