ORG. FILE
20-80
AWARD NO.
3
CARRIER FILE
140-513-3
CASE NO.
3
NRAB FILE
CL-7589
SPECIAL BOARD OF ADJUSTP-tENT N0.
174
PARTIES The Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks,
Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes
TO
DISPUTE The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company
STATMviENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood
that:
(a) Carrier violated the current Clerks' Agreement when it denied -
payment of travel and waiting time and living expenses to A, G. Maedgen for
May
22, 23, 24, 29, 30
and
31, 1954;
and,
(b) A. G. Maedgen shall now be paid in addition to any allowance
of time previously made, two
(2)
hours at Helper rate of pay for each day
May 22
and
29, 1954,
and two hours fifteen minutes
(2115")
for each day,
May
24
and
31, 1954,
at Helper rate of pay; and,
(c) A, G, Maedgen shall now be reimbursed for living expenses as
indicated below:
Breakfast at Lunch at Dinner at
Date Granbury Granbury Cranbury Total
May 22 $ .85
4
.85
May
23
9c
.45
6
.85 .85 2.15
May
29 .85 .85
May 30 .75 .45 .85 2.o5
$~ -f,20 4 1.30. 3
7
.90
(d) A. G. Maedgen shall now be paid seven
(.07¢)
per mile for
266
miles for each of two trips. made from headquarters point to Granbury and return
on May
22-24, 1954
and May
29-31, 1954
(Total
637.24),
for use of his private
automobile as means of getting to relief point for work and returning to headquarters point,
FINDINGS: Special Board of Adjustment No.
174,
upon the whole record and all
the evidence, finds and holds:
The Carrier and Employes involved in this dispute are respectively
Carrier and Employes within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act as amended.
This Special Board of Adjustment has jurisdiction over this
dispute.
Award No.
3
Case No.
3
For the reasons stated in S.B.A. No.
174
Award 2 this claim must be
sustained.
A W A R D
Claim sustained in accordance with the findings and opinion in S.B,A.
No.
174
Award 2.
/s/ Hubert Wyckoff
Chairman
I dissent:
/s/ A. D. Stafford /s/ J. D. Bearden
Carrier Member Employs, Member
Dated at Chicago, Illinois December 16, 1958
(For Carriers Dissenting Opinion, see Award No. 2)
DISSENTING OPINION OF CARRIER MEMBER TO AWARDS NOS. 2 AND
3
OF
SPECIAL BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT N0.
174
The majority has, in these Awards Nos. 2 and
3,
based their decisions
on Third Division Award No.
5488
(Referee Donaldson) and statements that "The
policy of this Special Board is to act upon the Agreement as interpreted by Third
Division awards on this property, whether we agree with the awards or not, provided
they are not palpably erroneous. We are unable to conclude that Award
5488 is
palpably erroneous."
Had the majority in these Awards Nos, 2 and
3
decided the dispute on
the basis of Article IX, Section 1 of the governing agreement and the conduct of
the parties thereunder as set forth in the Carrier's Exhibit "A", instead of
adopting the obviously erroneous interpretation of that rule by Third Division
Award No,
5488,
in disregard of the warning contained in the Dissent of the
Carrier Members in that award, they would have found that the majority in Award
No.
5488
had, while professing to construe or interpret, actually amended or revised
Article IX, Section 1 of the governing agreement. In electing to accept Award
No.
5488
without question, the majority in these Awards Nos, 2 and
3
have, the same
as did the majority in Award No,
5488,
disregarded the following facts:
(1) The terms of Article IX, Section 1, are limited
by the very language thereof to employee who have a "headquarters" and a "regular assignment" which they are required
to leave to perform service elsewhere and "necessitates their
traveling",
(2) Individuals$ such as the claimants in Third Division
Award No,
5488
and these Awards Nos. 2 and
3,
who are (a) furloughed employes with only an employment relationship, (b) not
in the active service of the Carrier and (c) free to reside at
any location of their choice end do as they please while in a
furloughed status, cannot possibly have a "headquarters" and
"regular assignment" which they were required to leave within
the meaning of Article IX, Section 1.
(3)
Contrary to the conclusion expressed in the ninth
paragraph of the "Opinion of Board" in Award No.
5488
with
regard to "compulsion", the "forfeiture of seniority" provision contained in Article III-, Section 13-b of the governing
agreement, is only applicable in instances where a furloughed
employe fails to respond to a notice of recall to service
within the
14
calendar days prescribed in the rule; which serves
to prove that the claimant in Third Division Award No,
5488,
as
well as the claimants in these Awards Nos. 2 and 3, were under no
compulsion to report for service but simply did so of their own
volition and a desire to obtain employment that was available to
them under the agreement rules by reason of their employment
relationship. Moreover, any compulsion to which furloughed employes
might be subjected by reason of the "forfeiture of seniority" provision
of Article III, Section 13-b, is a requirement of the rule and not a
requirement of the Carrier,
Dissenting Opinion to Awards Nos.
2 & 3
(4)
Also contrary to the erroneous conclusion expressed
in the eleventh paragraph of the "Opinion of Board" in Third
Division Award No.
5488,
the "regular work period", as referred
to in the second sentence of Article I%, Section 1 of the governing
agreement, can only refer to the "regular work period" of the
"regular assignment" which an employe is required to leave to
perform work elsewhere and which necessitates his traveling, and
cannot possibly refer to "the hours of the position assumed" and
to which a furloughed employe is traveling, as erroneously assumed
by the majority in Award No.
5488.
In adopting the erroneous assumption of the majority in Award No.
5488
that °-~y-the headquarters of a furloughed employe were at the division point."
the majority in these Awards Nos, 2 and
3
failed, as did the majority in Award
No.
5488,
to distinguish between furloughed employes or regular assigned employes
and explain why all of the furloughed employes who reside at widely scattered
locations on a division comprising many miles of railroad should have a common
headquarters at the "division point" where few if any reside, while the headquarters
of regular assigned employes are at the city, town or station at which assigned to
work. The inconsistency of the erroneous assumption of the majority in Third
Division Award No,
5488
and in these Awards Nos. 2 and 3 that "*'mkthe headquarters
of a furloughed employe were at the division point." is further emphasized by the
fact that if the claimant in Award No. 2 had, for example, been used to protect
either (1) a temporary vacancy of less than
15
calendar days' duration under
Article III, Section 10-a, or (2) rest day relief service under Article VI, Section
10-h of the governing agreement, at Coleman, Texas where he resided, he would,
on the basis of the majority's erroneous reasoning in Third Division Award No,
5488
and these Awards Nos.
2
and
3,
be entitled to
'!4-%N
necessary traveling expenses'
based on the proposition that Temple was claimant's headquarters', notwithstanding
the fact that the individual in the example cited had not been required to leave
his point of residence,
Since there is nothing whatever contained in the agreement rules which
prescribes the "headquarters" of furloughed or off-in-force-reduction employes
and the Third and other Divisions of the National Railroad Adjustment Board have
repeatedly recognized that it is without authority to add to, take from or otherwise write rules for the parties to a dispute (Third Division Awards Nos.
6107,
6271, 6365
and others), there can be no question but what the majority in Third
Division Award No.
5488
and in these Awards Nos.
2
and
3
exceeded their statutory
authority when they held that "the headquarters of a furloughed employe were at the
division point°. Moreover, if it had been the intention of tht parties to the
instant dispute that furloughed employes were to have a "headquarters" within the
meaning and intent of the term as used in Article IX, Section 1, they would have
so stated and provided for the designation of a headquarters point for such employes
by management, the same as they did in Article IX, Section 3-b of the governing
agreement, which reads in part as follows:
"The Carrier shall designate a headquarters
point for each rest day relief assignment,jHH01
It has, moreover, been historically recognized that the prerogatives and rights
of management remain unchanged except to the extent restricted by agreement rules.
See Third Division Awards Nos.
5897, 6001, 6270, 7113
and others.
- 2 -
Dissenting
Opinion to
Awards Nos. 2 & 3
In accepting Award No.
5488
without question as a proper interpretation
of Article
IA-,
Section 1, and which was unquestionably based on false assumptions,
the majority in these Awards Nos. 2 and
3
failed to do that which even Referee
Donaldson,, the author of Award No.
5488,
subsequently did in Award No.
6698
wherein he (1) reaffirmed the reasoning of Referee Carter in Award No.
4516
that
UiHHFan award
cited as a precedent is no better than the reasoning contained within
itiHHOI and (2) overruled a prior Award No.
3589
on the same property which he
found had been based on a false assumption.
The majority in these Awards Nos. 2 and
3
also failed to give heed
to the undisputed fact that Award No.
5488
was not one of a long line of decisions
but was, on the contrary, the only award of record which had held that a standard
or uniform travel time rule, such as Article In, Section 1 of the governing
agreement, was applicable to furloughed employes.
Awards Nos. 2 and
3
are clearly erroneous and founded on false assumptions, The
undersigned Carrier
Member of this Special Board of Adjustment No. 174
dissents for the reasons stated herein.
/s/ A. D. Stafford
Carrier Member