SPECIAL BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT N0. 924
Award No.
$0
Docket No. 87
PARTIES: Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes
TO
DISPUTE: Chicago and North Western Transportation Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood
that:
(1) The thirty (30) day suspension assessed Machine Operator R.E.
Rhodes was without just and sufficient cause and excessive.
[Organization file 3D-4719; Carrier File 81-85-23-D]
(2) Claimant R.E. Rhodes shall be allowed the remedy as prescribed
in Rule 19(d)."
FINDINGS:
This Board, upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds
and holds that the employes and the Carrier involved are respectively
employes and Carrier within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act as
amended and that the Board has jurisdiction over the dispute herein.
On July 10, 1984, while he was nipping a tie with a bar,
Claimant was observed straddling the bar and also sitting on top of
the bar. Claimant subsequently was directed to appear at a formal
investigation of the charge:
To determine your responsibility for rules violations committed
by you while performing your duties at Barr, Illinois at
approximately 3:19 P.M. July 10, 1984.
The investigation was held as rescheduled after a postponement, and a
copy of the transcript has been made a part of the record. We find
that the investigation was conducted in a fair and impartial manner.
This Board has reviewed the evidence and testimony in this case,
and we find that there is sufficient evidence in the record to support
the Carrier's finding that the Claimant was guilty of a safety rule
violation. In addition to the witnesses that the Carrier presented at
the hearing, the Claimant also admitted that he did not comply with
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t, e Carrier's rules. Hence, the Carrier had sufficient basis to
impose discipline against the Claimant.
Although the organization argues that the 30-day suspension was
excessive, the record demonstrates that this Claimant has had numerous
personal injuries, as well as disciplines for violation of various
safety rules. He has received three deferred suspensions and one
previous actual suspension. Based on the record of this Claimant and
the nature of the infraction of which the Claimant was found guilty,
we do not find that the Carrier's action in assessing the Claimant a
30-day actual suspension was unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious.
Therefore, we will not set it aside.
Award:
Claim denied.
Ch-airman, Neutral Me TJer
ier ember Employee Member
Date:
/7~J
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