Definitions

For purposes of this chapter, the term “employer” means any carrier (as defined in subsection (g)), and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by one or more such carriers or under common control therewith, and which operates any equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service, casual service, and the casual operation of equipment or facilities) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad, or the receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, or handling of property transported by railroad, and any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the property or operating all or any part of the business of any such employer; except that the term “employer” shall not include any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general steam-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general steam-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power. The Surface Transportation Board is hereby authorized and directed upon request of the Secretary, or upon complaint of any party interested, to determine after hearing whether any line operated by electric power falls within the terms of this exception. The term “employer” shall also include railroad associations, traffic associations, tariff bureaus, demurrage bureaus, weighing and inspection bureaus, collection agencies and other associations, bureaus, agencies, or organizations controlled and maintained wholly or principally by two or more employers as hereinbefore defined and engaged in the performance of services in connection with or incidental to railroad transportation; and railway labor organizations, national in scope, which have been or may be organized in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C., chapter 8), and their State and National legislative committees and their general committees and their insurance departments and their local lodges and divisions, established pursuant to the constitutions and bylaws of such organizations. The term “employer” shall not include any company by reason of its being engaged in the mining of coal, the supplying of coal to an employer where delivery is not beyond the mine tipple, and the operation of equipment or facilities therefor, or in any of such activities. For purposes of this chapter, the term “employee” means any individual in the service of one or more employers for compensation. The term “employee” includes an officer of an employer. The term “employee” shall not include any individual while such individual is engaged in the physical operations consisting of the mining of coal, the preparation of coal, the handling (other than movement by rail with standard railroad locomotives) of coal not beyond the mine tipple, or the loading of coal at the tipple. For purposes of this chapter, the term “employee representative” means any officer or official representative of a railway labor organization other than a labor organization included in the term “employer” as defined in subsection (a), who before or after June 29, 1937, was in the service of an employer as defined in subsection (a) and who is duly authorized and designated to represent employees in accordance with the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C., chapter 8), as amended, and any individual who is regularly assigned to or regularly employed by such officer or official representative in connection with the duties of his office. For purposes of this chapter, an individual is in the service of an employer whether his service is rendered within or without the United States, if— For purposes of this chapter— The term “compensation” does not include that part of remuneration paid during any calendar year to an individual by an employer after remuneration equal to the applicable base has been paid during such calendar year to such individual by such employer for services rendered as an employee to such employer. There shall not be taken into account under clause (i) remuneration which (without regard to clause (i)) is not treated as compensation under this subsection. Clause (i) shall not apply to— Except as provided in clause (ii), the term “applicable base” means for any calendar year the contribution and benefit base determined under section 230 of the Social Security Act for such calendar year. For purposes of— For purposes of this paragraph, the second sentence of section 3121(a)(1) (relating to successor employers) shall apply, except that— For purposes of applying sections 3201(a), 3211(a), and 3221(a), in the case of payments made to an employee or any of his dependents on account of sickness or accident disability, clause (i) of the second sentence of paragraph (1) shall exclude from the term “compensation” only— Nothing in any paragraph of this subsection (other than paragraph (2)) shall exclude from the term “compensation” any amount described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 3121(v)(1). The rules of section 3121(v)(2) which apply for purposes of chapter 21 shall also apply for purposes of this chapter. The term “compensation” shall not include the value of meals or lodging furnished by or on behalf of the employer if at the time of such furnishing it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such items from income under section 119. The term “compensation” shall not include any payment made to or for the benefit of an employee if at the time of such payment it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such payment from income under section 106(b). The term “compensation” shall not include any payment made to or for the benefit of an employee if at the time of such payment it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such payment from income under section 106(d). The term “compensation” shall not include any remuneration on account of— For purposes of this chapter, the term “company” includes corporations, associations, and joint-stock companies. For purposes of this chapter, the term “carrier” means a rail carrier subject to part A of subtitle IV of title 49. For purposes of this chapter, tips which constitute compensation for purposes of the taxes imposed by section 3201 shall be deemed to be paid at the time a written statement including such tips is furnished to the employer pursuant to section 6053(a) or (if no statement including such tips is so furnished) at the time received. For purposes of this chapter, if 2 or more related corporations which are employers concurrently employ the same individual and compensate such individual through a common paymaster which is 1 of such corporations, each such corporation shall be considered to have paid as remuneration to such individual only the amounts actually disbursed by it to such individual and shall not be considered to have paid as remuneration to such individual amounts actually disbursed to such individual by another of such corporations.