"Claim of the System Committee of the TCU (GL-13155) on behalf of Claimant Guy Varcasia.

(a) The Carrier violated the TCU/CSXT - North Rules Agreement, effective June 1, 1999, particularly Rules 1, 24, 40 and other rules, when it abolished Claimant Guy Varcasia's position Operating Support Clerk, position No. 41101-162, rate of pay $137.00 per day, located at CSX's Regional Building, Selkirk, New York, effective January 17, 2005. And then assigned the duties of: car tracing (company material cars), way billing cars for Road masters, notifying Road masters on material cars, ordering empty material cars via Ships, updating Customer Service Department in Jacksonville on material car status, maintain inventory of all M of W material and equipment cars on Division, generate purchasing orders, research unpaid invoices, receipting of purchase orders, scrap rail sales - report and waybill scrap cars, maintain and distribute daily and weekly reports to Division Engineer, Material Engineer, and Signal Engineer, daily updates; basic car reporting, production tie report, rail gang report, division wreck panel report, empty gondola report, and daily phone coverage for; Division Engineer, Staff Engineers, Material engineers, and daily copying, filing and

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.

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

Parties to said dispute were given due notice of hearing thereon.

Effective January 17, 2005, the Carrier abolished Operating Support Clerk Position No. 4B01-162 held by the Claimant. The Claimant was advised of his right to exercise his seniority in accordance with the applicable Rules of the CSXTITCU-North Agreement. The Organization asserts that the abolition of the Claimant's position violated Rules 1, 24 and 40, among others.

The tasks of the position at issue consist of car tracing (company material cars) way billing cars for Roadmasters, notifying Roadmasters on material cars, ordering

empty material cars via SHIPCSX, updating Customer Service Department in Jacksonville, Florida, on material car status, maintain inventory of all M of W material and equipment cars on the Division, generate purchasing orders, research unpaid invoices, receipting of purchase orders, scrap rail sales - report and waybill scrap cars, maintain and distribute daily and weekly reports to the Division Engineer, the Material Engineer, and the Signal Engineer, daily updates; basic car reporting, production tie report, rail gang report, Division wreck panel report, empty gondola report, and daily phone coverage for Division Engineer, Staff Engineers, Material Engineers, and daily copying, filing and mail handling.

It is the Organization's position that the duties and responsibilities of the Claimant's position were negotiated and placed within the scope of the CBA made effective June 1, 1999. Because this work was governed by a "positions and work" Scope Rule, it could not be removed from covered employees without negotiation and agreement with Organization. The "general" Scope Rule is inapplicable, the Organization asserts.

The Carrier submits that in order to prevail in this Scope Rule dispute, the Organization must prove that the alleged work is reserved exclusively to Clerical employees by specific Agreement. Where, as here, a "positions and work" Scope Rule is in effect, the burden of proof is location-specific, and the Organization must demonstrate that the work was exclusively performed by Clerical employees at the time the "positions and work" Scope Rule took effect. The Carrier contends that the Organization cannot and has not made this showing, because the disputed tasks were not exclusive to the Claimant's position or to the Clerical craft as a whole. The Carrier also asserts that most of these Clerical activities have been rendered unnecessary due to technological advances, such as E-BUSINESS, SHIPCSX, and ORACLE, that have automated many of the tasks, and the few residual tasks, such as the general office duties of receipting unpaid invoices, copying, filing and mail handling, were absorbed by Clerk-Typist Engineering Position No. 41101-163.

It is unnecessary to determine whether this dispute should be decided under the "general" Scope Rule or the "positions and work" Scope Rule, or whether the disputed tasks are exclusively reserved to Clerks under either Scope Rule, or any other Agreement or practice at the location. Instead, the Board finds that the record clearly

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