PARTIES ) The Denver and Rio Grande T·7estern Railroad Company
 '.CO Tie ) and
 DISPU'T'E ) Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes

 QUESTION The question at issue is the guaranteed
 AT ISSUE: rate of compensation for the following
 protected employes under Section 1, Article
 IV, of the Mediation Agreement of February
 7, 1965:
 A. DT. V?ass, B&B Foreman





OPINION For ten years until November. 29, 1965, Mr. Wass'
 OF BOARD: B&B gang had worked continuously in railroad tunnels
 and had been paid at tae higher rate of a steel
 gang. The steel-gang rate for tunnel work appears to have
 been the result of a verbal understanding or practice, but it
 never appeared in the rules agreement.

 Article 7V, Section 1, guarantees "the normal rate of compensation" of the "regularly assigned position on October 1, 1964" held by protected employees. Although the Employes' submission describes them as a "tunnel gang," the regularly assigned positions of these men are in a B&B gang. They are not a steel gang and there is no contractual provision for a tunnel gang ..

 If the Claimants had done B&B work not in a tunnel on October 1, 1964, they would have been paid at the regular rate of a B&B gang. The differential which was always paid for tunnel work would not have been given them on any day when they worked outside a tunnel. The February 7 Agreement does not contemplate that the particular compensation received by a protected employee on October 1, 1964, shall be maintained. Rather, it specifically relates the guarantee to the normal compensation of a regularly assigned position.
                                      Case 110. i1;1-o-Tit


The special tunnel differential is not "normal." compensation for a B&B gang. Even if the tunnel work is of long standing, it does not establish a new "regularly assigned position."

 During the Committee's deliberations reference was made to Awards 46, 47 and 48. These dealt with overtime payments, which were held to be part of the normal compensation of regularly assigned positions. However, the Claimants here received no such built-in compensation. Theirs cons paid solely waen and if tunnel work eras performed, and not as a regular, fixed part of the usual compensation for a "regularly assigned position" in a B&B gang. Award No. 47 noted that the overtime "allowance was paid whether the employee holding the position worked overtime or no-t."

 The additional pay given to the Claimants is akin to overtime prerniu:as paid rrlhenevCr overtime is worked. There was no guarantee that t7h.e gang would work- in tunnels every day, and that the differential would be paid every day, as occurs with built-in overtime. The ten-year duration of tunnel work does not alter the B&B gang's character. and does not endow it with compensation guarantees beyond the B&B rate, under Article IV, Section 1, of the 1965 Agreement. 7'he'Yegularly assigned positions" remain those of the B&B gang, whether tunnel work is performed for.a wee)c or a decade.

                        A W A F D


              The guaranteed rate of compensation for the protected employees listed in the question, pursuant to Section 1, Article IV, of the Mediation Agreement of February 7, 1965, is their rate of compensation as a B&B gang, exclusive of the differential traditionally paid when work is performed in a tunnel.


                          Milton Friedman

                          Neutral Member


Dated: Washington, D.C.
 June 10, 1969
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