The loco pilots of the Indian Railways have asked he government to take note of the IndiGo crisis, and bring in duty-hour limits for them to prevent fatigue issues and avert accidents, reports said. The IndiGo chaos amid a renewed Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms led to mass cancellation of flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded across multiple airports in the country.
The loco-pilots have now written to the authorities, seeking work-hour cap to prevent fatigue and avert potential accidents. The All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), reported ET, highlighted how the government’s approach is different in dealing with IndiGo fiasco as compared to its usual approach with government employees.
What does the association say?
The association said that every worker agitation in any public sector or government-run industry is often met with disciplinary action, chargesheets, or suppression “invoking all sorts of black rules and are being justified as taken for the convenience of the travelling people or transportation of essential goods,” the report said.
“But when large private corporations resist safety regulations, the government kneels before their dictums even neglecting the safety of the system,” it was quoted saying in the report.
The loco pilots said the issue with IndiGo mirrors the situation they have been raising for a long time, relating to their work-time gap. They emphasised on their decades-long demand of scientifically designed duty schedules, adding that fatigue-management norms worldwide are based on extensive research and past safety incidents, reported Moneycontrol.
Citing the norms in the European Union, Australia, Canada and the US, the association said the duty and rest limits are calculated using advanced biomathematical models.
It further urged the Railways to adopt an FRMS-based work-hour system to ensure:
A six-hour daily duty limit
predictable rest schedules
16 hours of rest after each shift
weekly rest in addition to daily rest
Railways workers protest seeking demands
Recently, several union workers across different zones held a 48-hour agitation seeking fulfillment of the long pending demand of the loco pilots.
The demands included increase KMA rates, restricting continuous night duties to two, additional allowance, increase in rest hours among other things.
This all comes as IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights for a week after its attempt to meet the new pilot duty hours and rest norms, led to shortage of pilots, ultimately leading to grounding of hundreds of planes. The DGCA has now sought response from the CEO and COO.