The Third Division consisted o the regular members and in addition Referee Robert Perkovich when award was re dered.
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 ~~,,,,ithin 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.
The Claimant was assigned to the position of Signalman on Signal Gang 15314 on the Texas Division. On the day in question a Signal Maintainer was working overtime repairing a meter pole when it became apparent that he needed assistance from another employee. The Signal Maintainer's supervisor instructed the Signal Maintainer to contact another employee from the gang and the Signal Maintainer did so, contacting an employee who was less senior than the Claimant who then performed the work. The Claimant then filed the instant claim alleging that as the more senior employee he should have been assigned the overtime work in question.
Because the claim raises a matter of contract interpretation the burden of proof is of course on the Organization. We find that it has not met its burden of proof because the record is unclear whether the Claimant was available to perform the work in question had he been called to do so. Because the record does not permit us to make such a finding, and because the Board should not engage in speculation or make presumptions that are not established in fact, the claim must be denied.
This Board, after consideration of the dispute identified above, hereby orders that an Award favorable to the Claimant(s) not be made.