Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 37133
Docket No. CL-38096
04-3-03-3-557
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee
Martin H. Malin when award was rendered.
(Transportation Communications International Union
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim of the System Committee of the Organization (GL-13023)
that:
1. Carrier violated the National Vacation Agreement, Rule 11 and
other related rules of the Agreement by failing to compensate
Claimant Jeston Powell III for his scheduled vacation week of
July 19 through and including July 23, 2002.
2. Carrier shall now compensate Claimant forty (40) hours pay
for the vacation week which was scheduled and for which
Carrier failed to compensate Claimant.
3. Inasmuch as Carrier scheduled the vacation week for Claimant
and has never disputed that be qualifies for said vacation,
Carrier shall now pay interest on the forty (40) hours vacation
pay which it is withholding from Claimant. Interest as herein
claimed shall be calculated at four (4) percent per annum,
compounded, but shall not be less than $2.00 per month
beginning with the month of September, 2002 until such time as
Claimant is paid for the vacation week. (For example, if
Claimant's 40 hour vacation week equals $706.55 and Carrier
finally pays him during the month of November, 2002, Carrier
shall pay him $710.55 to include the $2.00 per month interest
claim for the months of September and October, 2002.)"
Form 1 Award No. 37133
Page 2 Docket No. CL-38096
04-3-03-3-557
FINDINGS:
The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the
evidence, rinds 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.
The Claimant's vacation was scheduled for July 19 - 23, 2002. The Claimant
was furloughed on March 22, 2002. At the time of his scheduled vacation in July,
the Claimant was not paid his vacation pay. The Carrier paid the Claimant his
vacation pay in December 2002. The only issue presented by the claim is whether
the Board should order the Carrier to pay the Claimant interest for the intervening
period (amounting to approximately $6.00).
The clear weight of authority is that a Board will not award interest except
under special circumstances, such as an express provision in the Agreement
providing for interest or bad faith on the part of the Carrier. See, e.g., Third
Division Awards 28178, 24710, 24614, 23918. This is not a case such as Public Law
Board No. 4788, Award 3, where the Carrier deducted money from the Claimant's
pay check despite the pendency of a claim challenging the Carrier's entitlement to
such deductions or Public Law Board No. 4400, Award 14, where the Carrier
ordered the Claimant to pay it a large sum of money to which it was not entitled
under penalty of discipline if he failed to do so. There are no special circumstances
that would warrant an award of interest.
AWARD
Claim denied.
Form 1 Award No. 37133
Page 3 Docket No. CL-38096
04-3-03-3-557
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 25th day of August 2004.