Step-ups and Make-wholes   

Vacancies caused by absence of regularly assigned conductors are to be covered by the protecting conductor extra boards.  If a conductor extra board is exhausted the following from Item 43(d), the Conductor Extra Board agreement in force on the Eastern District, governs:  

“7(a). When the conductors' extra board is exhausted, vacancies will be filled by the senior conductor available at calling time with written application on file. 

(b). If no conductor with application on file is available, the junior promoted conductor available at calling time will be used.”  

“Application on file” is the listing on the T# function in TCS for the protecting conductor extra board.  

“Junior promoted conductor available” means the junior available promoted conductor working as a brakeman at the protecting location.  Temporary conductor vacancies are not normally protected by promoted conductors working in yard service at a location.  

A trainman contacted to work in accordance with 7(a) and 7(b) above will do so with no additional compensation other than that earned on the temporary vacancy.  There is no make whole and no set-up penalty of half a basic day for persons called under 7(a) and 7(b).  

In order to qualify for a make whole and/or a step-up penalty a conductor has to have been called to protect a vacancy for which they did not properly stand by virtue of rule or agreement.  This is stated in Item 92(t):    

     The Carrier has begun examining claims for make wholes and step-ups more closely.  Some situations in which they were previously paid without question may become subject to dispute.  In order to obtain payment for valid claims of this type it may become necessary to offer proof that a conductor did not stand for a particular vacancy and that the proper vacancy procedures were not followed.  

     Proof that a conductor did not stand for a vacancy exists in the form of translogs, board standings, and other information available in TCS and easily printed out and preserved.  This information must be saved in hard copy and must be included with the time claim when it is forwarded to this office for general level appeal.  It must also be demonstrated who the proper callee was, and why, in order to support a claim for make whole or set-up in connection with calls for duty off-assignment.  

     In pool freight service step-ups and dropped turns are not necessarily the same thing.  Step-ups occur when a person is removed from his assignment and placed onto a vacancy on another assignment.  He then occupies that position for the duration of the vacancy.  A dropped turn is when a pool freight turn with the entire crew unavailable cannot be filled because of unavailability of extra employees.  It is bypassed and dropped to the bottom of the pool and the next out pool turn behind the vacant turn, or turns, becomes first out and is called.  

     A crew called for service behind a dropped turn has not been stepped-up under the provisions of Item 92(t).  He became first out when the turn ahead was dropped and was then called because he was first out.  There is no rule or provision in the Agreement, including in Items 92(s) and 92(t), to provide a make whole or step-up penalty to a trainman called for duty in his own turn following a dropped turn or turns ahead in the pool if the agreed vacancy procedures have been exhausted.

     The UTU objects to the practice of dropping turns because, from a safety standpoint, the practice makes proper rest at the proper time difficult to judge and implement.  It has, however, been permitted by several arbitration awards including one on this territory.