§797a Termination Allowance

Summary

The Corporation may end the jobs of some employees and must pay each person $350 for every month they worked for the Corporation or a railroad in reorganization, up to a total of $25,000. Within 90 days after August 13, 1981, the Corporation must decide how many workers at each place it plans to separate and must tell employees about their rights and how to ask for separation. Also within that 90-day period, each train and engine service worker who could be separated must be told they can file a written request to be separated. If more people ask than there are excess firemen or excess second and third brakemen at a location, those who asked will be separated in order of seniority, starting with the most senior, until the extra positions are gone. If fewer people asked than the number needed, after 210 days after August 13, 1981 the Corporation may pick people for separation in reverse seniority, starting with the most junior, until the extra positions are gone. A picked employee can either volunteer to be furloughed so a different protected junior employee is separated and paid, or use seniority to move to another location, in which case the Corporation may separate the next most junior protected employee at that other location. For each engine-service separation the Corporation may leave one fireman job unfilled, and for each train-service separation it may leave one extra brakeman job unfilled, with where those unfilled jobs occur to be agreed with union leaders or decided by the Corporation if no agreement is made. The Corporation and employee representatives can agree on steps to carry this out, but lack of agreement will not stop separations. The same rules apply to firemen in commuter service, and the Corporation must make those separations.