Upon the whole record and sit the evidence, the Board finds that the parties herein are carrier and empioye# v::0-1h:.-. t!-:e .:.eaiiing of the Railway Labor Act, as amended. Further, the Board is duly constituted by Agreement, has jurisdiction of the Parties and of the subject matter, and the Parties to this dispute were given due notice of the hearing thereon.
On July 6, 2000, the Carrier advised the Claimants and one other that It intended to convene an Investigation:
Page 2 Award Rio. I S
As background, aft four are welders or welder assistants. On the date of the alleged Infraction of the Rules, the weather caused the Carrier to halt the welding process, The four Claimants were sitting around a table near a phone Inside their shop area and decided to call a Track Supervisor and leave on his recorder what has been described as an "AJ" which, from what this Board can determine, Is a rather rude noise. Each thought this was rather humorous, but what compounded the problem was that the phone was not disconnected at the termination of noise making, thus an ensuing conversation was recorded also on the Track Supervisor's recorder. It is from this spontaneous recorded conversation that the Carrier became aware of who was talking and because one Claimant castigated the Supervisor they had just called in clearly unflattering language, charges were assessed, the Page 3
or rude prank, but it did tie up the tines and did constitute a cage of the phones to convey other than company business. However, the record discloses that leaving an "AX an the recorder had been going an for some time, since at least 194. Further, there was unrefuted testimony trial loco! supervisors (Nulik and Mouser) had bean given 'We" !n the past and "...they took it to stride and saw the human in it." Thus, the Board concludes trial while employees giving Ws" knew it Was contrary to company policy, they else believed, to some degree, it was acceptable. in any event, as a result of this incident they now understand that such behavior will not be tolerated in the future.
Regarding the unflattering remarks made by Claimants Martin and NaRdaway that gyre unknowingly recorded after they gave Ws", this was clearly inappropriate behavior. The record indicates that these individuals recognized this fact and felt remorseful far their discourteous actions.
This Board finds, however, that the assessment was too harsh and it treated each Claimant as being equally involved when it is clear tram the record that Claimants Noldaway and Martin were involved, whereas Claimants Lathers and Pohlman were just there in the room.
PagoThis Board. after consideration of the dispute Identified above, hereby orders that an award favorable to the Claimants) be made. The Carrier Is ordered to make the award effective on or before JO days following the date the award is adopted.
