Introduction
Public Law and Special Adjustment board awards serve two purposes:
The first purpose is to rule on the validity of claims and settle disputes.
The second and possibly more significant purpose of the awards is to add context and interpretation of agreements. Often the specific purpose of an agreement can be lost to time, misused or translated incorrectly. When this occurs, board awards can be used to interpret and bring back clarity to the execution of that agreement. The awards also help to add context and depth to the performance of the contracts, in absence of other historical documents.
Organization
With the tens of thousands of board awards that have been created since the inception of the Railway Labor Act, it can be challenging to house or organize all the awards.
Organizing this volume of documents is overwhelming to say the least. Our goal in building this site is to provide a library, but also organized in a way to benefit the local chairman or member who wanted to research specific issues. In order to accomplish that goal we have broken the awards down into subjects. Each subject will cover a specific issue and include a summary with a list of board awards that can be opened for further scrutiny and study.
Example PLB | SBA Outline
Subject: Investigation Procedures
Sub topics: Rule G, Investigation, Investigation Notice, Investigation Process
Summary: While there are many agreements that govern the proper procedures and rules that the carrier must follow, the following board awards clearly define those procedures as:
- Notices must be postmarked and sent certified mail.
- The carrier must present the receipts of the certified mail.
- The Right to a fair trial includes the following elements:
- The defendant must be given the ability to present evidence on their behalf.
- The defendant has the right to representation and council.
- The defendant must be given the ability to answer the charges, in their own words.
- The defendant must be present for the investigation.
- Other Elements etc…
List of Applicable Board Awards:
- First Division National Railroad Adjustment Board Award: 5197 Docket No: 9213