Meals in Multiple Hours of Service
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
As you are aware, the Carrier has prevailed in its position that Extra Engineers performing Hours of Service Relief are not eligible for trip rate payments when dog catching trip rated service. In its submission to the National Disputes Committee, the Carrier argued that: “In calculation of trip rates for pools 1406, RE31, and RE32, the earnings of extra board engineers called to perform HOS relief were not included in the trip rate calculations for the pools involved. Because such service was not contemplated in the trip rate for pool service, extra board employees performing HOS relief continue to to be paid in accordance with the rules in effect prior to the establishment of trip rates under the 2003 National Agreement. This concept is in effect across the Union Pacific System, and to the Carrier’s knowledge, on every other railroad subject to the 2003 National Agreement.” The Carrier, in its statement of facts also asserted: “The plain language of Q&A #18 instructs that extra employees who perform Hours of Service (HOS) relief are not entitled to a trip rate for such service, unless a trip rate has been established for HOS relief. No trip rates for such service have been set. Therefore, extra employees performing HOS relief are paid exactly as they have always been paid for HOS relief: a basic day or miles run, whichever is greater. Paying extra engineers a trip rate for HOS relief would in effect reward an engineer for service that the engineer did not complete. To pay an engineer who may have only run 30 miles in HOS Relief a full trip rate · the same trip rate payment afforded to an engineer who made a full trip of 150 miles or more · strikes at the heart of the pay neutrality principles and the basic employment principles of compensation for work performed.”
The Carrier again asserted in its position that “However, it is the Carrier’s well supported position that HOS relief for extra employees has not been trip rated on the Carrier’s system and that no trip rate payment is due. That does not mean that the employee is not compensated for the HOS relief performed, but rather the employee is simply compensated with basic day, mileage and/or arbitrary payments for services rendered.”
In his award of August 18, 2015, Disputes Committee Chairman Edwin Benn ruled for the Carrier and confirmed the Carrier’s position by denying our claims for trip rate payments for extra engineers performing hours of service relief of trip rated pools. While he denied our claims, he also confirmed that extra engineers performing hours of service relief are performing non-trip rated service and still retain, among other things, the right to request and obtain meals under Rule 111 of the WRGCA BLET-UPRR Agreement, which provides: “Road engineers shall be allowed time for meals between terminals when necessary, provided train dispatcher is given sufficient advance notice, if possible, to avoid delay to other trains.”
Extra engineers whether performing single or multiple hours of service relief retain the right to request and be granted a meal during the single trip or after they have completed hours of service relief on the first train and before leaving the terminal to dog catch a subsequent train. In multiple hours of service relief involving multiple trips in and out of the terminal, the home terminal becomes an intermediate terminal after departing on the first trip and until arriving on the last trip. To qualify for the meal the engineer must contact the train dispatcher to request a meal period. The rule provides that the meal period is to be granted so long as it doesn’t cause a delay to other trains. It will be necessary for engineers desiring a meal to ensure that these conditions are met.
In the event an engineer is denied his/her request for a meal period between multiple hours of service relief trips or during a single hours of service trip, the proper claim would be for a basic day under Rule 111. It will be necessary to document the dispatcher who was contacted, when he/she was contacted, the location where the meal was requested and that no other trains were going to be delayed in the event the request was granted. Be sure to describe the location of the next train on which the engineer has been assigned to perform hours of service relief and that no other trains would have been delayed had the request been granted. The foregoing documentation will be necessary to support the claim and our handling of it through the appeals process. The appropriate Claim Code in the WRGCA Claims Handling System is Code #118.
Trusting that the foregoing will be helpful to our membership, I remain
Fraternally,
J.L. Dayton
General Chairman – BLET
WRGCA
The full memo can be read here