PARTIES Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
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 DISPUTE: Springfield Terminal Railway Company
 STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
 Appeal of the discipline of dismissal imposed on S. C. Kilgore on November 2, 1998. FINDINGS: Subsequent to a hearing held on October 23, 1998, claimant was found guilty of violating General Rule GR N, in that he was absent from work without permission on September 24, 1998.
 The Carrier states it is undisputed that the claimant failed to cover his assigned position on the date in question and that he had not sought permission to be excused from work. They point out that the claimant has a history of excessive absenteeism in his relatively short tenure with the Carrier as evidenced by his discipline entries on his service record, all of which involve absenteeism. Further, they also point to the fact that the date in question was the day before he was to begin serving a 30 day suspension for a prior offense dealing with absenteeism. In summary, they state that the record will show they have systematically dealt with the claimant as shown by their application of progressive discipline, which clearly has had no affect on the claimant as he continuously exhibits a cavalier attitude towards his assignment and employer.
 In his defense, claimant alleges he is a victim of circumstances, in that while driving to work on the date in question he was stopped at 6:30 AM by the Police for driving a non-inspected vehicle. He states he was detained about 20
 q o-8 /J 4D .,,.'7 PLB-5418 C-27/A-27 Page 2 minutes and rather to continue to go to work he chose to go home and tend to personal business. Claimant alleges he called the Carrier approximately one hour after the start of his tour of duty and said he marked off to an unidentified employee.
 This Board is not persuaded by the unsubstantiated reasons given by the claimant at his hearing. Therefore, based on the record before us, the Board concludes, the Carrier satisfied the limited obligation it had to attempt to correct claimant's absenteeism through progressive discipline. Hence, we find that the Carrier did not abuse its discretion in this case.

 AWARD: The claim is denied.
                  Franci om ski

                  Neutr Membe


T. W. McNulty B. A. Wi ter
 Carrier Member Organization Member
 Dated: IA-11?- 98 -