PUBLIC LAW BOARD NO. 2960
AWARD NO.I4S
CASE NO. 218
PARTIES TO DISPUTE
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
and
Chicago and North Western Transportation Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:
"1. The Carrier violated the Agreement when it allowed a
junior Class B Machine Operator to operate an anchor
machine instead of assigning Machine Operator M.
Whitaker (Organization File 9KB-4252 T; Carrier File
81-87-18).
"2. Claimant M. Whitaker shall be compensated the
differential between trackman and 903 machine operator
for all hours worked by the junior employe commencing
October 14, 1986."
OPINION OF THE BOARD:
This Board, upon the whole record and
all
of the evidence,
finds and holds that the Employe and Carrier involved in this
dispute are respectively Employe and Carrier within the meaning
of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, and that the Board has
jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.
This case involves the application of Rule 16(b) which
states in relevant part as follows:
"(b) Vacancies of less than thirty (30) calendar days
duration may be filled without bulletining by the
senior qualified employes in the district and group
making request in writing, consistent with operational
requirements."
PLB 2960 -2- AWARD N0.
t4f6`
We note that in the handling of the Claim on the property, a
factual dispute arose as to whether the Claimant had made a
specific request to work the machine in question, as the Union
asserts, or as the Carrier asserts, whether he simply made a
general inquiry as to why he couldn't be working-on the rail
gang. In either event, there is no dispute that, regardless of
the nature of the Claimant's request, it was not done in writing
as required by the Rule.
It is clear that Rule 16(b) requests must be done in
writing. This isn't a meaningless technicality to be overlooked
by the Board. The Parties wrote such a requirement for a purpose
and no doubt one of the reasons was to avoid factual
controversies, like the one which arose early in this case.
In summary, since there was no valid 16(b) request made, the
Claim must be denied.
AWARD
The Claim is denied.
Gil Vernon, Chairman
D. b)' Bartholomay J Raz
Employe Member Ca rier Member
Dated: +-
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