Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 36952
Docket No. SG-36911
04-3-01-3-464
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee
Robert Perkovich when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Kansas City Southern Railway Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim on behalf of the General Committee of the Brotherhood of
Railroad Signalmen on the Kansas City Southern Railroad (KCS):
Claim on behalf of all members of BRS Local 185 for an unjust
treatment hearing. Account Carrier violated the current
Signalmen's Agreement, particularly Rule 49, when on July 14, 24
and 31, 2000 it conducted department-wide reasonable
suspicion/cause drug and alcohol breath and urine sample tests.
Carrier's File No. K6005413. General Chairman's File No. 004149.
BRS File Case No. 11758-KCS "
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 1 Award No. 36952
Page 2 Docket No. SG-36911
04-3-01-3-464
After a number of Signal Department employees tested positive the Carrier
conducted drug and alcohol tests of all Signal Department employees. Thereafter,
the Organization filed a written request under Rule 49 asking for an Unjust
Treatment Hearing. The Carrier declined the request.
Rule 49, the governing Rule in this dispute, reads as follows:
"An employee who considers himself otherwise unjustly treated shall
have the same right of hearing and appeal, as provided above, if
written request is made to his immediate supervisor within ten (10)
days of the cause of complaint."
The proper disposition of this claim lies in the language of Rule 49. Simply
put, Rule 49 clearly and unambiguously provides the right of an Unjust Treatment
Hearing only to "an" employee and not to employees as a class. Thus, when the
Organization filed its request for an Unjust Treatment Hearing, it did so for "all"
employees when only those employees as individuals hold the right to a Hearing.
AWARD
Claim denied.
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 22nd day of March 2004.