BETWEEN:

AND

SOLE ARBITRATOR: J. F. W. Weatherill

There appeared on behalf of the Company:

M. M. Yorston

And on behalf of the Union:

J. W. Asprey

E. Tandy

A hearing in this matter was held at Montreal on June 11, 1981.

The Joint Statement of Fact and Joint Statement of Issue in

this matter are as follows:

The fact that there was a reduction in staff at McAdam (as a result of the opening of a new facility at Saint John, and the transfer there of a number of employees from McAdam), is not in question. Rather, the question is whether or not the grievors, being Carmen, were entitled to be called to perform certain work which was performed by Labourers at times when the grievors were not on duty.

The work in question is that of watering the dining car on VIA Rail trains 11 and 12. Prior to the installation of VIA Rail service, the watering of CP Rail trains at McAdam had been performed by carmen. When VIA Rail service began, the watering of the passenger trains continued to be performed by carmen. It is probably fair to say that if carmen are on duty at the times when passenger trains are to be watered, carmen are assigned to perform such work. Certainly, the work is of a sort which is within the jurisdiction of carmen. The question is, however, whether or not that is an exclusive jurisdiction, and whether or not carmen are entitled to be called in to perform it if required at a time when no carman is on duty.

The grievors have submitted claims for payment pursuant to article 5.5 of the collective agreement. That article is as follows:

Article 5 deals generally with "Overtime and Calls". Clearly, if carmen or their helpers are called to perform the sorts of work referred to, including the work in question, they would be entitled to the payment prescribed by that article. Such payment, it may be noted, is different from the usual call-in or reporting pay provided for by article 5.4. For a time, after the reduction in forces at McAdam, the grievors were called in to perform such work outside of their regularly assigned working hours, and they were paid in accordance with article 5.5. That is, in such cases they were required to attend and were entitled to payment accordingly. They are, however, no longer required to attend.

Article 5.5 deals with the payment to be made to employees in certain circumstances and for certain types of work. It does not deal with the matter of limitation of jurisdiction over work. Certainly, it contemplates that carmen are expected to perform watering as well as other tasks, but it does not purport to prevent other employees from performing such work; it does not confer an exclusive jurisdiction.

What the company has done is to assign certain work, of a type which might properly be done and which has been done by a member of the bargaining unit to an employee in another bargaining unit. The performance of the particular amount of work in question does not bring the person performing it within the scope of this unit. The collective agreement provision referred to (article 5.5) does not confer exclusive jurisdiction to the work. There does not appear, then, to have been any violation of the collective agreement. It may be added that the article which generally sets out the nature of Carmen’s work, article 58.2, does not contain any provision of exclusive jurisdiction.

There has, therefore, been no violation of the collective agreement, and the grievance must accordingly be dismissed.

DATED AT TORONTO, this 16th day of June, 1981.