Title - Railway board empathizes with overworked loco drivers

New Delhi: The railways have finally woken up to the miseries of locomotive pilots, who are being subjected to long night shifts and inhuman duty hours, but stopped short of taking concrete steps in making amendment in rulebook.
    Though the railway board agreed to adopt a slew of measures to give relief to the drivers at a meeting after TOI highlighted the issue, its letter to zonal managers termed the pilots’ demands for better working conditions as “good suggestions”.
    In the meeting, senior rail officials suggested that crew roster must not factor more than two-three continuous night duties. Also, efforts should be made to ensure that the driver is not made to work for more than six hours between 10pm and 6am.
    Besides, loco pilots will get a calendar day rest instead of existing 22/30 hours of breather, which will help them to fulfill family and social obligations.
    Now, there is no upper limit in the rulebook on the number of night duties to be done by the engine crew. And, there are several drivers, who are doing 15 consecutive night shifts. The weekly rest provisions are vague since it stipulates giving drivers a 30-hour rest four times or 22-hour rest five times in a calendar month. Intriguingly, the provisions are silent on the gap between the two rests.