Report Given by Com. C. Suneesh, Central Vice President, All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA)
All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) is a fighting organization representing the Assistant Loco Pilot, Shunting Loco Pilot, Loco Pilot Goods, Loco Pilot Passenger, and Loco Pilot Mail of Indian Railways.
AILRSA Bengaluru division organised a mass gate meeting in front of Crew Booking Depot, K R Puram adjacent to KR puram Railway Station on 19th July 2025 from 10.30 Hrs.
Meeting was welcomed by Sri Pravesh Sahare and addressed by Sri. V Krishnanand Central Organising Secretary, Sri C Sunish, Central Vice President, Sri S A Vishnu, KJM Branch Secretary and Sri. NK Sanddep, Benagaluru Division Secretary.
The meeting raised the following demands:
1. ON CONTINUOUS NIGHT DUTIES.
During night, when sleeping, human body, gets rid of toxins, self-repairs injury and reduces stress levels. As human beings are Diurnal the human body is programmed to sleep during night and work during day. So, it is impossible to fall in to sound sleep during day time and hence day sleep would no way compensate the sleep debt, for that a night in bed must be allowed after a night duty. But in stark contrast the running staff, who are the vanguard of safety in Indian Railways and whose duty involves sustained attention and alertness, are always forced to perform 4 continuous night duties.
RDSO investigations and findings indicate that mid night/early morning time zone induces higher stress on Loco Pilots as their mental alertness shows slackening during these hours. The working of second consecutive night has been found to further dampen the mental alertness making Loco Pilots vulnerable to operational lapses. The root cause for the majority of SPAD cases in our Railway are caused by falling in micro-sleep or dampening of mental alertness of the crew of the train. Continuous night duties contribute a major role in it.
After an in-depth study, the HPC recommended to reduce the consecutive night duties to two. In the interest of Railways safety, consecutive night duties must be restricted to two.
Unfortunately, Bengaluru division authorities are pressuring the employees to work more than three continuous night duties and also if employee demands night rest, they are asking to take Periodic Rest instead of night rest, which is against the Railway Boards’ instructions. Also, they are booking crew after 3rd night duties to out station, which again increase the night duties.
AILRSA demands limit continuous night duties to two.
2. ON DENIAL OF TRIP REST OF 16 HOURS WHEN AVAILING PERIODICAL REST.
Under the provision in Railway Servant (Hours of work and Periods of Rest) Rules 2005, after every spell of duty, Loco Running staff are entitled to 16 hrs. rest at their headquarters. Besides, they are entitled for 4 periods of rest of 30 hours each in a month as periodical rest (PR) instead of weekly rest.
Hon’ble Regional Labour Commissioner (Central) Bangalore, after detailed examination, ordered that “trip rest and periodical rest are separate connotations and should not run concurrently”. The decision of RLC/SBC was upheld by the Hon’ble Central Administrative Tribunal and the Hon’ble High court of Karnataka.
As the Railway administration did not care to honour the verdict of the Hon’ble High court of Karnataka, we are still working without adequate weekly rest, which is discriminative and arbitrary, thereby putting the well-being of the running staff in jeopardy so also the safety of Railways.
The workers all over the world, whether engaged in private or public sector, enjoy one day rest after six days working. This is to get recouped from accumulated fatigue of six days work, to get relieved from all sorts of stress, to visit aged parents, close relatives and friends, to meet domestic and social needs, to fulfill the family and social obligations etc.
But in the case of running staff weekly rest is restricted to 30 hrs., i.e. only 14hrs. rest is allowed in addition to normal trip rest of 16 hours. As a result, running staff during his weekly rest is unable to perform any one of the objects of weekly rest.
Statistics revealed that most of the SPAD cases are occurring when running staff resume duty after weekly rest. This is due to insufficient rest period granted as weekly rest. Running staff of Indian Railways are the one and only category of workers all over world who are forced to work 365 days in a year without having a single calendar day rest. Absence of sufficient weekly rest along with the uncertain hours of work, leads to more stress on running staff which has direct impact on safety of Railways. In this regard, the Railway Board says that, the 16 hours Headquarters rest is fulfilled when 30 hours PR is given, if that is so, running staff will get only 14 hours as weekly rest.
The decision of RLC (C) Bangalore, which was upheld by the Hon’ble Central Administrative Tribunal, Bangalore and Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka that 16 hours head quarter rest should be given in addition to 30 hours periodical rest to running staff, should be implemented in letter and spirit.
3. STAFF VACANCY POSITION:
As per the position of staff as on 17.09.2025 at KJM (KR Puram) goods depot, the sanctioned strength of LPG is 500 and actual available is 174; vacancy is 326.
ALP position sanctioned strength is 466; available is 153; vacancy is 313.
LP Shunting sanctioned strength is 78 and available is 18; vacancy is 60.
The shortage of staff creates overburdening of employee by not sanctioning leave applications including emergency and sick leave.
