SooLineRob wrote:Off Pending wrote:
Now, you might go to school ahead of other employees, but their date is guaranteed and they will fall back ahead of you on the engineer's roster even if you got promoted first.
Wow... Is the following example correct?
John Doe, trainman seniority date 8/1/04, works out of Toledo, OH.
Jack Person, trainman seniority date 3/17/99, works out of Harrisburg, PA.
John Doe attends LET starting 3/5/07, establishes an Engineer seniority date of 12/1/07 out of Toledo.
Jack Person attends LET starting 8/27/09, establishes Engineer seniority date of 5/23/10 out of Harrisburg.
Is it correct that Jack Person would rank ahead of John Doe on the system Engineer's seniority roster?
You're half right ... the junior employee went to school first, but didn't actually establish a seniority date. That "date" is already selected for him.
Section 2 of the 2004 UTU/NS LET agreement covers this:
<i>(2) An order of selection list of unpromoted NSR Eastern Region Hub Network trainmen with seniority after October 31, 1985 will be created by dovetailing them, using their earliest retained trainman’s seniority date and their ACT class order and ranking.
<b>Where employees have been ranked in a specific order following completion of the Accelerated Conductor Training Program, that relative order will be maintained.</b> Trainmen with the same seniority date due to the dovetailing of the seniority rosters used to create the order of selection list will be ranked according to the last four digits of their social security number (000 first through 9999 last).
<b>This order of selection list will determine their relative seniority standing on the engine service roster, when promoted, except as outlined in Section 5.</b>
Trainmen who transfer to the NSR Eastern Hub Network will be slotted on the order of selection list based upon their NSR Eastern Region Hub Network trainman seniority date.</i>
Section 5, mentioned above, only changes this order if an employee claims hardship (such as FMLA) as an attempt to delay attendance at LET school. To paraphrase that section, if you use FMLA to get out of LET school, you forfeit your seniority on the predetermined selection order, and revert to a new spot with lesser seniority.