Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 38099
Docket No. SG-37870
07-3-03-3-243

The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee Elizabeth C. Wesman when award was rendered.

(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen PARTIES TO DISPUTE:


STATEMENT OF CLAIM:



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.
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This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.




This case involves a dispute concerning the application and interpretation of Rule 55 - NO VALID BIDS RECEIVED and Appendix S of the Agreement between the parties.










Form 1 Award No. 38099
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any authorized public transportation. If an employee is authorized
to use his/her personal vehicle for transportation, he/she will be paid
an allowance at the authorized rate per mile for normal roadway
travel miles by the imost direct route.
(c) Each Assistant Signalman and Assistant Signalman Candidate
will be designated a headquarters point and home station on his/her
seniority district which will remain unchanged until they have
completed the training program and have been promoted to a Class
1 position. Assistant Signalmen and Assistant Signalmen
Candidates who request a change in the headquarters assignment or
who exercise their seniority in a normal manner to acquire a
position at another location will do so without expense to the carrier
and will assume the expense or per diem rules applicable to their
new assignment. Assistant Signalmen and Assistant Signalmen
Candidates who are rotated to gain the required work experience
will assume the hours of service, the general working conditions, and
the expense or per diem rules, if any, of employees or gangs to which
they are assigned. When Assistant Signalmen or Assistant
Signalmen Candidates are assigned to work with an employee who is
assigned a fixed headquarters location away from their assigned
headquarters, they will be reimbursed for actual necessary expenses
incurred."

On March 8, 2002, the Claimant was force-assigned to a position on Gang No. 4536 in Kansas City, Missouri. At the time, the Claimant was an Assistant Signalman on Gang No. 8654 in Waco, Texas, and that was his designated headquarters. On April :;0, 2002, the Organization filed the above claim on his behalf. The Organization alleged that because the Claimant had been forceassigned to a position, he was eligible for Article XII benefits. The Organization also noted that because the Claimant had not completed his training program, under the provisions of Section 4(c) (quoted above) he was entitled to have his seniority district remain unchanged until he had completed his training program. In sum, the Organization insisted that, because the Claimant used his own vehicle to drive from his residence to Independence, Missouri, rented a. room for the weeks he was there, and incurred meal expenses, he was entitled to be reimbursed in accordance with Section 4(c).

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The Carrier denied the claim on June 18, 2002. It contended that the Claimant was force-assigned per Rule 55, and that training was not applicable in his situation. It further contended that the Claimant was not covered under Appendix S, Section 4(c) and was, therefore, not entitled to reimbursement as requested in the claim.





In its appeal of the Carrier's denial, the Organization pointed out that Appendix S provided that the Claimant's seniority district should have remained unchanged until he had completed his training program and was promoted to a Class I position. It argued that because the Claimant had not finished his training program, he was entitled to actual necessary expenses incurred when the Carrier required him to change his headquarters point.


It is clear from this record that the Claimant had not finished his training program. Further, he was not actually required to change his residence - i.e., sell his house and move himself and his family from Waco, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. Accordingly, he does not technically fall under the provisions of Article XII with respect to entitlement to a "transfer allowance." However, in the narrow circumstances of this case, the Claimant is entitled to reimbursement for "actual necessary expenses incurred" under Section 4(c) of Appendix S.

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The present case is not dissimilar from the matter considered by the Board in Fourth Division Award 4691. In that case the Board found:



employment and tries to unjustly gain moving benefits... As noted above, due to the particular narrow circumstances of this case, the
Claimant is entitled to reimbursement for actual necessary expenses incurred
(receipts provided). The Board notes that the Claimant bid on and received a
Signalman position on Gang 1495 and was released on April 30, 2002. Accordingly,
reimbursement shall cease as of that date. All other remedies are rejected account
not supported by the parties' Agreement.







This Board, after consideration of the dispute identified above, hereby orders that an award favorable to the Claimant(s) be made. The Carrier is ordered to make the Award effective on or before 30 days following the postmark date the Award is transmitted to the parties.


                      NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                      By Order of Third Division


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 21st day of February 2007.