PUBLIC LAW BOARD NO. 7163

PARTIES TO DISPUTE

) BROTHERHOOD OF MAINTENANCE OF WAY EMPLOYES DIVISION,

) INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

)

) CSX TRANSPORTATION , INC.

STATEMENT OF CLAIM:

The Agreement was violated when, on September 18, 2016, the Carrier assigned junior mobile production forces to perform scheduled non-mobile overtime service (diamond installation project) at Mile Post BIH 21.0 on the B&OCT Seniority District (System File H40410216 /2016-211900 CSX).
As a consequence of the violation referred to in Part 1 above, Claimants J. Krzan, Z. Lotz, M. O' Reilly and G. Ontiveros shall now be ' ... compensated for sixteen (16) hours of overtime and two (2) hours of double time, each, at their respective rates of pay. Also, that all time be credited towards vacation, holiday and retirement pur poses. ***' (Employes ' Exhibit ' A-1')."

FINDINGS:

The Board, upon consideration of the entire record and all of the evidence, finds that the parties are Carrier and Employee within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, that this Board is duly constituted by Agreement dated March 20, 2008, this Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein, and that the parties were given due notice of the hearing held.

On the date of claim, the Carrier used employees assigned to a mobile Large-Scale Switch Tie Installation Gang to perform work installing a diamond on the B&OCT Seniority District. This

PUBLIC LAW BOARD No . 7163

AWARD N0. 323

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claim was filed on behalf of Section Gang employees on the B&OCT Seniority District, asserting that they should have been used to perform this work.

The Carrier has denied the claim on the basis that the crew that performed the work was a mobile Service Lane Work Territory (SLWT) crew which can perform any work covered by the scope of the Agreement. It relies upon the "Strongsville Agreement ," containing such an authoriza tion. It also cites Rule I 7, Section 2 of the Agreement, which governs preference for overtime and states:

Section 2 - Mobile gangs:

When the work involved is of a specialized nature , suc h as production work, rail laying , tie i nsta llatio n, sur face, etc. the gang ordinarily doing this type of work during the regularly assigned work period would be given preference for the continuation of this work outside the regularly assigned work period with the employees in the gang being called in the order of their senior ity, in the required job class. rf other employees are needed to assist in the work, other production gang employees within the seniority district will be offe red /calle d in the order of their sen io rity, in the required job class .

In reviewing the record before us, the Board notes that the Carrier had assigned the work of installing this diamond to Claimants, but had to cancel the project due to the unavailability of cranes. We also note that the SLWT gang had not performed work on this diamond prior to the date of claim. On this basis , we conclude that this is work that could have been assigned to Claimant s, and was not work that was reserved to the SLWT gang.

We find the Carrier' s interpretation of the "Strongsville Agreement " to be overly broad. While it states, "Such gangs consisting of any number of employees may perform any work covered by the scope of the new Maintenance of Way Agreement ... ," it goes on to say, " On the other hand the establishment of SLWT gangs will not be used as a device to eliminate basic maintenance forces (See Side Letter)." Our interpretation of the Agreement, therefore, is that the SLWT gangs may

02/13/19