The following is an excerpt from a September 25, 2000 letter from the Carrier to involved General Chairmen.

"Mandatory, scheduled completion:

Employees, other than certified engineers, not completing the Book of Rules examination in the year 2000 will be scheduled to complete the CBT Program on their birthday. For initial implementation of this program, an employee's birthday falling between January 1 and January 31, will be given one additional month to complete the CBT Program. For example, an employee's birthday falling on January 15, 2001 will have a completion date of February 15, 2001. Certified engineers working in demoted status not completing the Book of Rule or Recertification in the year 2000 will be scheduled to complete the CBT Program on their Recertification date.

Employees who do not voluntarily complete the CBT program before their scheduled date will be compensated in accordance with the controlling agreement rule. Failure to complete the CBT program (training and testing) by the scheduled date will be considered the same as a failure to pass the examination, unless the employee produces evidence that such failure to complete the program was due to illness, emergency, or conditions beyond his control.

If the Carrier can determine that an employee will lose time from his assignment for CBT on his birthday, he may be instructed to assume his assignment, and will then be scheduled to complete CBT within one week after his birthday. In such cases, the Carrier will notify the employee at least 24 hours in advance of the time scheduled for CBT.

Voluntary, early completion:

Employees who complete the CBT Program prior to their scheduled date and without losing time from their assignments will be allowed a single payment in the amount of $200.00. This allowance will be considered incentive pay for early completion of CBT, and is not subject to entry rates. The pay provisions of this letter will not apply to reexamination due to previous examination failures or to mandatory reexamination after extended absence.

Employees who elect to complete the CBT Program or modules while on duty are not authorized to remain on duty after completing their assignment in order to perform CBT if doing so would increase compensation for that tour of duty. For example, road employees will not perform CBT at the end of their trip if this would extend payments of final terminal delay, overtime, etc. Similarly, yard employees will not perform CBT beyond their regular shift hours to increase overtime payments."