NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD
SPECIAL BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT N0. 1011
TRANSPORTATION*COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL UNION
and
CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION
AWARD N0. 78
Case
No.
78
Docket
No.
CR-4206
STATEMENT OF CLAIM
(a) The Consolidated Rail Corporation violated the rules of the Agreement effective July
1, 1979, particularly Rule 5, among other rules,
when on September 23, 1987, a certified letter
of recall was
sent erroneously to
Mr. H. F.
Hittenrauch, resulting in the subsequent forfeiture of his seniority and employment rights
with the Carrer.
(b) The Consolidated Rail Corporation shall
be required to allow Mr.Hittenrauch eight (8)
hours at the appropriate rate of pay for each and
every day commencing October 5, 1987, that he was
deprived of working until the date he was eventually restored to active employment with full
seniority rights.
(c) This claim has
been presented in
accordance
with the provisions of
Rule
45 of the Agreement and
should be allowed.
F I
N
D I N G S
Claimant holds seniority date of April 14, 1975. He
was furloughed in 1981, at which time he had on file a
SBA No. 1011
Award No. 78
Page 2
Carrier form which designated his home address. On September
27, 19$7 he was sent a recall letter by cert,i_fied mail. The
letter was returned "unclaimed". It had been addressed to
2220 N. High St., Columbus, the address on file at the time
furlough commenced.
On October 5, 1987, the Claimant was sent a letter stating
that because of his failure to report, he had "forfeited [his]
seniority and employment relationship". This letter, however,
was sent to 460 E. Norwich Ave., Columbus.
The Carrier acted on the provisions of Rule 5 (e), which
reads as follows:
(e) When a permanent position is awarded
to a qualified furloughed employee and it does
not require a change in residence, he shall be
recalled by certified mail to his home address.
An employee failing to report for duty within ten
(10) calendar days after such notice was mailed,
except under circumstances beyond his control,
shall forfeit all seniority.
When the Claimant learned that a junior employee had
been recalled to service, he initiated a claim commencing
October 5, 1987 for failure to receive proper notice of recall.
During the claim handling procedure the Carrier agreed on
December 15, 1987 to restore the Claimant to service with
seniority unimpaired but without back pay to October T5. The
claim for back pay is the subject of this dispute.
SBA No. 1011
Award No. 78
Page 3
The Claimant stated he had orally advised the Carrier
of a change of address to the E. Norwich Ave. address shortly
after his furlough commenced and produced vacation pay on
W-2 forms sent by the Carrier shortly thereafter to the new
address.
The Carrier defends its position by stating that the
Claimant had failed to submit a Form G 2101 RT, Change in
Name And/Or Address, and thus the Carrier should not be held
liable for the Claimant's failure to receive the recall notice.
The Board finds that Rule 5 (e) does not specify the
method of notice to the Carrier. There is no indication that
the Claimant was advised that use of this form was essential.
That the Carrier did receive notice of the change can be reasonably presumed, based on the revised address for the vacation
pay and W-2 forms. Under these circumstances, the Claimant
cannot be found at fault.
A W A R D
Claim sustained. The Carrier is directed to put this
Award into effect wit in thirty (30) days of the date of this Award.
HE ER AR , JR Cha nan and tral Member
l
L
J. R. JENKINS, Employee Member
J. H. BURTON, Carrier Member
NEW YORK, NY
DATED:
r.UL021991