New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) Railway Board has urged all zonal railways to adhere to norms for booking loco pilots for continuous night duty after it received reports of non-compliance from certain quarters.
During a recent safety review meeting of various zones and divisions, Satish Kumar, Chairman & CEO of the Railway Board, said that some zonal railways were booking loco pilots for more than four nights continuously.
“In some Railways, cases of booking of crew continuously for more than 4 nights are being reported. No crew should be booked for the 5th night continuously. 4th night booking should be towards HQ (Headquarters),” a note of the review meeting prepared by the Railway Board and circulated to principal chief electrical engineers of all 17 railway zones, said.
Officials said that the Board had issued a direction in 2016, according to which continuous night duty for running staff should be limited to four nights, with the fourth night towards headquarters.
“This duty roster has been followed in the Indian Railways for booking loco pilots since 2016. Often, due to work pressure, loco pilots are booked for the 5th and 6th night duty continuously, which not only violates Railways’ own norms but compromises passenger safety as well,” a senior railway official, who was part of the meeting, said.
“The Railway Board Chairman noticed that some divisions are not adhering to this norm. Hence, he issued a direction to all the PCEEs to ask the concerned officials to be careful in booking loco pilots for night shifts,” he added.
Loco pilot unions have been in conflict with the Railway Boards regarding night duty shifts for a very long time.
The unions said that the committee, constituted to review the duty hours of running staff and other safety-related categories, had in August 2013 recommended restricting night bookings for two continuous nights from the then prevalent practice of six consecutive nights.
“Despite the High Power Committee’s recommendations which studied the issue in-depth, the Railway Board brought down the continuous night booking to four from six which was highly unfair. Unfortunately, the divisions are violating the Board’s 4-night duty norm also because of high vacancy in the safety cadre,” a loco pilot said.
The ‘High Power Committee’ had then said, “The continuous/consecutive night duties, which are six in the present practice, should be brought down to two nights for the Running Staff after which he must be granted at least one full night in bed before being booked again so as to recoup from the sleep debt.” In case a third night working is inevitable at the outstation on account of operational exigencies, the committee suggested that it might be permitted under certain conditions, such as the staff should be given at least 10 hours rest before signing on for duty, and the duty to be performed by the staff involving third night working should be towards their headquarters station.
It had also recommended that on completion of the above trip, he should be granted full headquarters rest, including one full night in bed.
“Sleep is a vital physiological need. Sleep is necessary to maintain alertness and performance, positive mood, and overall health and well-being. Each individual has a basic sleep requirement that provides for optimal levels of performance and physiological alertness during wakefulness,” the committee said in its report while referring to various research studies. PTI JP JP VN VN
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