Conversation of a rail worker with a Kamgar Ekta Committee correspondent
On one hand there is growing unemployment in our country, and on the other hand we also see increasing numbers of vacancies in every possible government sector that one can imagine. While this sounds contradictory, this is exactly the nature of the society that we live in today. Hundreds to even thousands of posts in many sectors of government jobs are kept vacant, while millions of youths seek fair job opportunities. The increasing vacancies are not only unfair to people looking for jobs, but also for workers who are employed. The increased burden of duties due to vacant posts falls directly on the workers who are employed.
While talking to a Loco Pilot (LP) crew in-charge of India Railways, he described the conditions and growing exploitation of the workers due to vacant posts. An LP crew in-charge has the responsibility to monitor the duties of loco pilots and accordingly prepare charts for the next round of duties. When I sat down to talk to him on a busy day, I saw him constantly struggling between an excel sheet, a duty portal and endless calls, that either he had to answer or make himself. When I asked him if he could explain how assigning duties to loco pilots worked, his answer left me absolutely shocked. Here is how our conversation went:
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KEC: How are you supposed to assign duties to Loco Pilots? What is it that you need to consider before assigning the next duty to a Loco Pilot? LPCI: Well, technically there are a lot of rules that I need to follow while allocating duties. But practically it is just impossible to do that. KEC: What do you mean? Why not? LCPI: There are rules that define the number of duty hours for which a Loco Pilot is supposed to be at work. After which there is also a minimum amount of rest period defined before which the Loco Pilot shouldn’t be allotted the next duty. Given the nature of their job, it is very important that such rules are strictly adhered to. A loco pilot is directly responsible for driving a train safely. Do you know that train drivers have to pay attention to every signal that they cross, and they cross them as frequently as 1 signal in every 8-10 seconds. Now can you imagine what will happen if a Loco Pilot is not alert at their job? And hence, having proper rest before they resume their next duty is non-negotiable. But it is just not possible to follow that given the acute shortage of Loco pilots we have. KEC: Are you trying to say that Loco pilots don’t get enough rest before resuming their work back? LCPI: Yes. There are times when Loco pilots end up working for 16 hours a day with just a short break of 4 hours in between. The official rule says that there has to be a “minimum” rest period of 4 hours between 2 duties performed by the same Loco Pilot. While this is the “minimum” gap defined, this by no means implies that a Loco Pilot should perform a second 8 hour shift after the first one with just a 4 hour gap in between. But due to large number of vacant posts, I am forced to assign duties to available Loco pilots with a 4 hour break. This break is so short that many a time Loco pilots don’t even have the time to go home, rest and report back for the next duty. As a result of this they often end up taking rest in the running room at the station where they sign off from their last duty. KEC: Which means once they leave their house they don’t return home before at least 24 hours? LCPI: Even more than that, madam. These are Loco pilots and they drive express trains over long distances. So, once they complete their assigned number of hours of duty and are ready to handover their duty to the next Loco pilot, they simply rest intermittently at that station. After a couple of hours of rest, they start the next duty and repeat this cycle till they reach back to the station where they started from or where they live. So Loco pilots have to continue like this for many days at times. KEC: That is very bad. Why is this happening? LCPI: I know that it is indeed very bad, but I also have no option. The increasing number of vacancies are forcing the existing train drivers to take on additional duties. While I don’t like doing it, I am forced from my higher ups to manage the duty chart in a way that shows the minimum defined rest hour and continue assigning duties to available loco pilots. I myself support the demand of filling up vacant posts in the Loco Pilot category as soon as possible. Instead of doing that, we are forced to manage the chart in a way that justifies the reduced number of loco pilots needed. It is completely inhumane. |
Upon hearing this I was in a complete shock listening to the conditions of the loco pilots. It is a job that requires a high level of alertness and attention. Literally thousands of lives depend on the loco pilots. Not giving them the opportunity to rest appropriately between 2 duties is essentially playing with the lives of thousands of passengers along with that of the Loco Pilot. And all this is due to the growing number of vacant posts in the Indian Railways today, not only among loco pilots but in all categories of IR. [Please see
- https://aifap.org.in/18300/,
- https://aifap.org.in/17871/,
- https://aifap.org.in/17074/,
- https://aifap.org.in/16843/ (previous articles) for more details about vacancies across multiple railway categories.]
“Immediate filling up of vacant posts” is a common demand across all category associations in the railways. It is a just demand and must be supported by all.