Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 38950
Docket No. SG-39066
08-3-NRAB-00003-050580
(05-3-580)
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee
Edwin H. Benn when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Union Pacific Railroad Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim on behalf of the General Committee of the Brotherhood of
Railroad Signalmen on the Union Pacific Railroad:
Claim on behalf of M. E. Cunard, for 8 hours' pay each day for July
9, 12 and 13, 2004, account Carrier violated the current Signalmen's
Agreement, particularly Appendix X and Rules 58 and 80, when it
refused to allow the Claimant to make a displacement of a junior
man at the circuit board repair shop on Friday, July 9, 2004.
Carrier sent the Claimant home without pay and he was not allowed
to make the displacement until July 14, 2004. Carrier's File No.
1409047. General Chairman's File No. N 1 491. BRS File Case No.
13264-UP:'
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.
Form 1 Award No. 38950
Page 2 Docket No. SG-39066
08-3-NRAB-00003-050580
(05-3-580)
This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the
involved herein.
Parties to said dispute were given due notice of hearing thereon.
This dispute arose when the Claimant was displaced from his Electronic
Technician position at the Central Dispatch Center in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 7
and then on July 9, 2004 sought to exercise his seniority to displace junior Electronic
Technician S. W. Slupianek at the Circuit Board Repair Shop in Council Bluffs,
Iowa, which was denied because the Claimant did not possess a valid FCC radio
license or the equivalent at the time he sought to displace Slupianek. This claim
followed.
According to the Carrier in a September 7, 2004 memo from Manager of
Signal Shop V. L. Engeberg, the Claimant was not allowed to displace Slupianek
because:
".
. . We have never allowed anyone without an FCC license or
equivalent to bid into or bump into the Signal Shop at Council
Bluffs. These are technical jobs working at circuit level repairs that
require an extensive knowledge of Electronic Theory. At the time
that Mr. Cunard wished to bump Mr. Slupianek, he did not have
any education regarding Electronic Theory and had not passed the
FCC exam for the General Radio License . . . ."
The Carrier possesses the managerial right to set reasonable job
qualifications. The record does not show that the Carrier's requirement for
possession of an FCC license or equivalent for the position the Claimant desired to
displace onto was arbitrary or capricious. On that basis, the claim must be denied.
The fact that the Claimant obtained the required license on July 13, 2004
shortly after being denied the ability to displace Slupianek (and then was allowed to
obtain the position at Council Bluffs) does not change the result. The license
requirement was a pre-condition for the Claimant's ability to displace Slupianek.
Form I Award No. 38950
Page 3 Docket No. SG-39066
08-3-NRAB-00003-050580
(05-3-580)
The record therefore shows that at the time the Claimant sought to displace
Slupianek, the Claimant was not qualified to do so.
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 29th day of February 2008.