Statement of All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) Northern Railway
Legality of demands of Indian Railways loco pilots
1. Grant of 16 + 30hrs. (Headquarter + Periodical Rest) Consecutive Rest:
These rest hours are not a demand but have been fraudulently withheld by the Railway Administration for many years by concealing/misinterpreting the rights under repressive orders. When the demand for consecutive rest as prescribed in Section-133(2) of the Railways Act-1989 was placed before RLC/Bangalore by the loco running staff, RLC/Bangalore passed an order in favour of the loco running staff stating the following – “Calculation of periodic rest available to running staff at Headquarters (Headquarter + Periodical Rest) Consecutive Rest is correct under Section-133(2) of the Railways Act-1989. If the Railway Administration reduces the rest hours, then it will have to pay OT at double the rate as compensation for the reduced hours.” After this, CAT also gave its decision in favour of loco running staff. Railways challenged the CAT decision in High Court/Karnataka, where they again lost. Comrades, our human rights have unfortunately been denied to us for a long time by Railways and we have been held guilty in accidents like SPAD without following judicial laws.
2. Total duty hours from Sign ON to Sign OFF should be 10 hrs:
Friends, after the report of HPC, the Railway Board vide letter no. E(LL)2015/HPC/2/Pt.MS dated 02.02.16 in Para 9.04 suggested extending the working hours of running staff from sign-on to sign-off to 10 hours, which the Railway Board decided to implement from 2020.
3. Continuous Night Duty limited to 02 Nights only:
Comrades, when the causes of SPAD were ascertained by HPC, irregular night duty came to light as the most important reason which was recommended to be mitigated by restricting night duty to 2 consecutive nights.
Apart from this, microsleep has been found to be the main reason for accidents. While investigating the previous duty of the crew involved in accidents, it was found that due to most of the recent work of the crew being in the night, the crew either did not get rest during the night or they were being made to work mostly in the night.
Even a mad man never wants to die, so why will the loco pilot deliberately want to die and cause SPAD
(Com. M.N. Prasad)
4. Absence from Headquarter should be fixed at maximum 48 hrs instead of 72 hrs:
Comrades, after the report of HPC, Railway Board in its full board meeting accepted the reduction of maximum period of absence of running staff from HQ from 72 hours to 48 hours in para 9.16 of letter no. E(LL)2015/HPC/2/Pt.MS dated 02.02.16. It has been more than 4 years since then. However, as per letter no. E(LL)2016/HPC/7 dated 23.11.16 and RBE no. 37/2010, strict monitoring of return to headquarters within 36 hours was ordered.
Comrades, all the above demands are not extortionate demands but rights of ordinary employees which were fraudulently kept away from the last and most important link of security, the loco running staff. Due to this, SPAD and other accidents started increasing in Indian Railways, for which the higher officials who fraudulently misinterpreted the rules are responsible. They have used the black law 14(2) to clean their name in the investigations conducted after accidents to find out the culprits without any prosecution (government) witness and by punishing the loco running staff.
AILRSA/Northern Railway