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 junction over the dispute involved herein.
The Claimant was on a medical leave of absence when this dispute arose. The Claimant presented a doctor's release dated April 12, 2007 which provided that he could return to work that date. However, the doctor stated in that release that the Claimant ". . . requested to be released against my medical advice due to financial situation."
release. The record shows that the Claimant was cleared to return to work by the Carrier's physician on May 23, 2007 for an on-duty injury, but the Claimant also had off-duty medical conditions for which he was not released. The Claimant was advised that he needed further documentation for his off-duty condition. The Claimant subsequently provided the necessary documentation for his off-duty condition on June 28, 2007 (which the Carrier deemed acceptable) and the Claimant was cleared to return to work by the Carrier on July 2, 2007. The Claimant then exercised his bumping rights to an assignment on July 9, 2007.
It is the Carrier's managerial function to determine the fitness of its employees. The standard of review for such determinations is not for the Board to decide whether the Carrier was correct in its assessment of the Claimant's fitness. Instead, our role is limited to review whether the Carrier was arbitrary in its determination that the Claimant was unfit during the period in dispute. Third Division Award 25013. It was not arbitrary for the Carrier to determine that the doctor's release dated April 12, 2007, which cleared the Claimant to return to work, but stated that the Claimant ". . . requested to be released against my medical advice due to financial situation" [emphasis added] was not sufficient to allow the Claimant to return at that time. While the Claimant was subsequently cleared to return to work by the Carrier's physician on May 23, 2007, that clearance was only for the Form I Award No. 39939