Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 36077
Docket No. SG-36041
02-3-00-3-166
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee James
E. Mason when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(CSX Transportation, Inc. (former Baltimore and
( Ohio Railroad Company)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim on behalf of the General Committee of the Brotherhood of Railroad
Signalmen on the CSX Transportation Company (B&O):
Claim on behalf of A.M. Davis for the assignment of an Assistant
Signalmen's seniority date of January 1,1998, and payment of compensation
for all lost wages beginning on January 1, 1998 and continuing until this
violation ceases, account Carrier violated the current Signalmen's
Agreement, particularly Rule 5, when the Claimant was improperly demoted
to the Class of Prospective Assistant Signalman. Carrier File No. 15 (99-65).
BRS File Case No. 11163-B&O."
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.
There exists on this property a "Side Letter No. 1 to CSXT Labor Agreement No.
15-46-97" which, by agreement of the parties, created a job classification of "Prospective
Form 1 Award No. 36077
Page 2 Docket No. SG-36041
02-3-00-3-166
Assistant Signalmen." Side Letter No. 1 provided for, among other considerations, a rate
of pay 14 cents per hour less than the Assistant Signalman rate of pay for a period up to
one year from the date hired to permit the new employee to gain practical experience in
the craft, after which the employee would be permitted to apply for an Assistant Signalman
position and thereby establish Assistant Signalman seniority standing.
On August 21, 1997, the Claimant in this case submitted an application for
employment as a Prospective Assistant Signalman. He began his employment in this
classification on September 23, 1997. Due to a clerical timekeeping error, the Claimant
was incorrectly paid at the Assistant Signalman rate of pay from September 23, 1997 until
January 26, 1998, when the error was detected and corrected. Thereafter, the Claimant
continued in service as a Prospective Assistant Signalman at the proper rate of pay, i.e., 14
cents per hour less than the Assistant Signalman rate of pay.
The case record contains evidence that the Claimant contacted Carrier Officiab on
several occasions following January 26,1998, and complained of being "demoted" from an
Assistant Signalman position. However, there is no indication or evidence in the case
record that anything definitive developed from these contacts until January 9,1999, when
the Organization initiated a claim on behalf of the Claimant alleging a violation by the
Carrier of the provisions of Rule 5 of the Agreement retroactively to January 1,1998, even
though the date of record on which the erroneous payroll allowance was corrected
occurred on January 26, 1998.
Rule 5 as referenced in the STATEMENT OF CLAIM reads as follows:
"RULE 5
ASSISTANT SIGNALMAN, ASSISTANT SIGNAL MAINTAINER
(a) An employee in training for the position of signalman or signal
maintainer, working with and under the direction of a signalman or
signal maintainer, shall be classified as an Assistant Signalman or
Assistant Signal Maintainer.
The number of assistant signalmen and assistant signal maintainers
on a seniority district shall be consistent with the requirements of the
service and the signal apparatus to be installed or maintained. Not
more than one (1) assistant signalman or assistant signal maintainer
will be assigned to a signalman or signal maintainer.
Form 1 Award
No. 36077
Page
3
Docket
No. SG-36041
02-3-00-3-166
(b) When signal helpers are available they shay be given preference for
promotion to a position of assistant; ability to learn the work being
sufficient, seniority will govern. They will be continued in such
position for eight periods of 130 days of service each, overtime
excluded, except that:
(1) An employee failing to show sufficient aptitude to learn
the work within a period of 90 days will be returned to
the position of signal helper, retaining his seniority
rights as a signal helper only, or
(2)
An assistant shall have the right to promotion to a
position of signalman or signal maintainer in the order
of his seniority if a position is open and he can qualify
in less than eight periods. If an employee so promoted
fails to meet the requirements of the position within 90
days, he will be removed from such position and may
retain and exercise his seniority rights as an assistant
and signal helper only to secure additional training and
experience.
(c) An assistant signalman or assistant signal maintainer will be classified
and paid in accordance with his previous experience in railroad signal
work in that class or a higher class on this and other railroads;
(d) At the expiration of eight periods of service as assistant signalman or
assistant signal maintainer, an employee will be promoted through
assignment to a position of signalman or signal maintainer as
provided in Rule
47(x).
Until such time he will continue at the highest
assistants' rate of pay.
If an assistant signalman or assistant signal maintainer, establishing
seniority as such after the effective date of this Agreement, refuses to
accept or fails to qualify for promotion to a position of signalman or
signal maintainer after completion of eight periods of training, he will
forfeit his seniority in the assistants' class and be demoted to a helper.
Such demoted employee may exercise his seniority in the helpers'
class only by bidding on vacancies or new position or by displacing
Form 1 Award No.
36077
Page
4
Docket No.
SG-36041
02-3-00-3-166
the helper his junior with the least seniority in the class, and will not
again be promoted to a position above that of helper.
(e) An assistant who has acquired seniority as a signalman or signal
maintainer prior to completing his eight periods of training and later
is returned to a position of assistant signalman or assistant signal
maintainer because of force reduction or displacement will be paid at
the highest assistants' rate."
After a thorough review of the case record and a consideration of the respective
positions of the parties, the Board is unable to conclude that there has been any violation
of the provisions of Rule 5 of the Agreement. Neither has there been any proven violation
of the provisions of Side Letter No. 1 dealing specifically with Prospective Assistant
Signalmen. The clerical payroll error that occurred during the brief period in question did
not convert the Claimant from a Prospective Assistant Signalman to an Assistant
Signalman. The extended delay of more than 11 months between the correction of the
clerical payroll error on January 26,1998, and the initiation of a claim on January 9,1999,
leaves the Board with no recourse but to dismiss the claim as being untimely presented.
AWARD
Claim dismissed.
ORDER
This Board, after consideration of the dispute identified above, hereby orders that
an award favorable to the Claimant(s) not be made.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 18th day of June, 2002.