Railway Minister’s claim of average duty hours of loco pilots being less than 8 hours belied – At least 100 instances of 15 to 26 hours of working in just two days

Report of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent

The Railway Minister in a press release had claimed on July 10, 2023 that the duty hours of loco pilots are carefully monitored and that the average duty hours of loco pilots are less than 8 hours in June. To counter this false claim, the loco pilots across India have compiled a list of 100 instances in just two days, 8th and 9th August 2024, where loco pilots had worked between 15 and 26 hours at a stretch! The list is given below.

It is these inhuman working hours that the Railway Minister and the Railway Board are refusing to admit while trying to present a rosy picture of the working conditions of the loco pilots.

The Railway Minister and the Railway Board need to undertake a complete review of the difficult working conditions of loco pilots as well as other safety category staff such as track maintainers, S&T maintainers, pointsmen, station masters, train controllers, train managers, etc.

They need to fill all vacancies and ensure that proper hours of work and rest are provided to all loco pilots as well as other safety category railway employees.