This document discusses the history and evolution of rules governing working hours for railway employees in India. It covers key milestones like the Railways Amendment Act of 1931, the Rajadhyaksha Committee Report of 1946, and the Miabhoy Tribunal Award of 1969-1972. The Miabhoy Tribunal addressed issues raised by railway unions regarding classification of workers, weekly working hours, overtime pay, and more. The tribunal's decisions, which included maintaining existing classifications and permitting averaging of hours for certain workers, were accepted by the government. Current rules are based on the Railway Act and Railway Servants (Hours of Employment) Rules of 1961.

1. HOURS OF WORK
MOHANDAS P
ASST. PROF (PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT)
NAIR

2. INTRODUCTION
• Working hours are one of the biggest concerns of
wage earning employees and in India these have
been settled by various labour laws enacted
before and after independence, all of which draw
inspiration from the Washington Convention of
1919 and Geneva Convention of 1921 ratified by
the British India Government in 1923.

3. • On the Indian Railways three landmark
developments have helped in the evolution of
the present framework of working hours in
which this system operates; these are
• 1 Railways Amendment Act 1931,
• 2 Rajadhyaksha Committee Report 1946
(Adjudicators Award) and
• 3 Miabhoy Tribunal Award 1969-72.

4. History of work
• The concept of protecting workers from the
perils of labour environments dates all the
way back to 14th-century in Europe.
The first example of the modern labour rights
movement, though, came in response to the
brutal working conditions that accompanied
the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the
18th and 19th centuries.

5. • In 1802, the Parliament of the United Kingdom
passed what is now known as the English Factory
Act.
• The act sought to regulate the workday of
apprentices by restricting work hours to 12 per
day.
• In doing so, the English Factory Act served as a
precursor to the models of international labor
standards seen today

6. • . Such conventions focused primarily on
improving working conditions in relation to
hours of work, women's and children's labor,
and the use of hazardous materials.

7. International Labour Organization
• In 1919, following the end of the First World War,
the agenda on international labor standards
reached a new level of prominence as a result of
the founding of the International Labour
Organization.
• As mandated by Part XIII of the Treaty of
Versailles, the ILO was created as a branch of
the League of Nations in order to address all
conceivable aspects of labor rights. Preliminary
efforts focused primarily on the eradication of
slavery and all forms of forced labor.

8. • The agenda quickly expanded, however, to
include the rights to freedom of association
and collective bargaining, nondiscrimination in
employment, and the elimination of child
labor.

9. -
• The ILO’s creation marked the first instance of
multiple major international actors coming
together in an attempt to reach a consensus on
universal workers’ rights.
• Despite a lack of any formal means of coercion,
the ILO then urged its 44 original member
countries to adopt and ratify conventions limiting
oppressive labor market practices

10. • Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 is
an International Labour Organization Convention.
• It was established in 1919:
• Having decided upon the adoption of certain
proposals with regard to the "application of the
principle of the 8-hour working day or of the 48-
hours week"...

11. Railway ACT 1890 CHAPTER VI
WORKING OF RAILWAYS
• 7. (1) The railway administration or], an
officer to be appointed by the Government in
this behalf, shall make general rules consistent
with this Act for the following purposes,
namely:-
(a) for regulating the mode in which, and the
speed at which, rolling-stock used on the
railway is to be moved or propelled;

12. -
• (b) for providing for the accommodation and
convenience of passengers and regulating the
carriage of their luggage;
(c) for declaring what shall be deemed to be,
for the purposes of this Act, dangerous or
offensive goods, and for regulating the
carriage of such goods;

13. •
(d) for regulating the conditions on which the railway
administration will carry passengers suffering from
infectious or contagious disorders, and providing for
the disinfection of carriages which have been used by
such passengers;
(e) for providing for and regulating the duties of the
railway servants in relation to train operations;
(f) for regulating the terms and conditions on which
the railway administration will warehouse or retain
goods at any station on behalf of the consignee or
owner; and

14. -
• (g) generally, for regulating the travelling
upon, and the use, working and management
of, the railway.
(2) The rules made under sub-section (1) may
provide that any person committing a breach
of any of those rules, except those falling
under clause (e) of that sub-section, shall be
punished with fine which may extend to any
sum not exceeding fifty Taka

15. Railway Servants (Hours of
Employment) Rules, 1961
• Railway Servants (Hours of Employment) Rules, 1961 were
framed under the Indian Railways Act, 1890. Under Rule 3(1) f
the said Rules, the powers to declare employment of railway
servants as ‘Essentially Intermittent’ or ‘Continuous vests with
the head of railway administration

16. . Rule 4 of the said rules provides that:- If any question arises in
respect of a declaration made under rule 3, the matter shall
be referred to the Regional Labour Commissioner (C) whose
• decision subject to the provisions of sub-rule (2) shall be final.

17. -
• Any person aggrieved by the decision of the
RLC(C) may, before the expiry of 30 days from
the date on which the decisions of the RLC(C)
is communicated to him, prefer an appeal to
the Government whose decision thereon shall
be final.
•
• Under Rule 2 (d), ‘Government means the
Central Government in the Ministry of Labour’

18. Hours of Employment Regulations
• The hours of work, periodic rest and
overtime entitlement of all railway servants
(including casual workers) except those
employed in the workshops or on the ferries
are governed by the Hours of Employment
Regulations (H.E.R.).

19. -
• The genesis of the H.E.R. dates back to the Indian
Railways (Amendment) Act, 1930 which was
enacted to implement the provisions of
Washington Convention No. 1 of 1919, ratified
by the Government of India in 1921, and Geneva
Convention No. 14 of 1921 which was ratified by
the Government of India in 1923.

20. • In 1956, the Indian Railways Act was amended by
the introduction of Chapter VI-A and in 1961, the
Central Government framed rules under Section
71-E of the same Act and these rules were
published under the title "Railway Servants
(Hours of Employment) Rules, 1961".

21. -
• Thus the H.E.R. are a combination of the
provisions contained in the Indian Railways
Act and the subsidiary instructions framed
there under.
• For the purpose of hours of work, the
Railway employees are classified as
• " intensive ",
• " continuous ",
• " essentially intermittent“
• "excluded".

22. Supervisory staff
Ministry of labour shall a specified Railway
servant or class of railway servant who shall
be supervisory staff.
a) Railway servant hold position of
responsibility
b) Duties mainly of supervisory character
c) Free to adjust this hours of duties or work
during such hours

23. -
• The Hours of Employment Regulations were last reviewed
by the Railway Labour Tribunal, 1969, who made
recommendations regarding
• classification of workers,
• weekly, hours of rest,
• principles of averaging
• actual duty hours for the purpose of overtime payment,
etc.
• These recommendations were accepted in toto by
Government.

24. STATUTORY
• CHAPTER VI A OF RAILWAY ACT
• RAILWAY SERVANT( HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT)
RULES 1961
• SUBSIDIARY INSTRUCTIONS

25. Federation had raised the following issues before the Miabhoy
Tribunal:
• (i) HOER should be revised to ensure that the workers
work for 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week.
•
• (ii) The Hours of Employment should be taken as the
time an employee is at the disposal of his employer.
•
• (iii) Time involved in handing over and taking over
should be reckoned
• as a period of duty.

26. -
• (iv) Time spent on travelling spare on duty should
also be treated as period of duty.
•
• (v) Essentially Intermittent (EI) classification
should be totally abolished.
•
• (vi) Averaging period in a week in the category of
staff having constant rosters (non-running staff)
should be done away with.
•
• (vii) Maximum hours of work for intensive
workers should be 6 per day and 36 per week

27. • (viii) Work done by intensive workers beyond
36 hours a week and that done by the
continuous workers beyond 48 hours a week
should be compensated by overtime payment
at double the rate.
•
• (ix) One clear day of weekly rest should be
given in a period of 7 days besides the daily
rest and in order that this may be ensured,
rest givers should be employed in the ratio of
1:6.

28. • (x) Duty at a stretch of the Running Staff
should be limited to 12 hours from signing on
to signing off, retaining the present proviso
which requires the Running Staff to give two
hours’ notice for being relieved.
•
• (xi) Intensive classification should be given to
Section Controllers, SMs, ASMs and other
categories of staff as proposed by the
• Federation

29. • (xii) Gateman “C” should be excluded from the
excluded category and they should be
classified as continuous workers.

30. Decision of miyabhoy RLT
The duty of an employee commences the
moment he is at the disposal of his employer
at latter’s instance.
•
• (2) Existing classification of Railway workers
into Continuous,Intensive and Essentially
Intermittent should be maintained.

31. -
• 3) Principle of averaging is warranted in
respect of (i) Running staff
• (ii) Operating staff (iii) Shift workers and (iv)
those workers whose work is bound up with
the work of the former three categories.
• 4 Rate of overtime shall be 1½ times the
ordinary rate of overtime work beyond
rostered hours but within statutory limit but it
shall be twice the ordinary rate for overtime
worked beyond statutory limit.

32. -• 5 Running duty at stretch of running staff should
not ordinarily exceed 10 hours, but such duty
may extend to a maximum of 12 hours provided
concerned authority gives at least 2 hours notice
before the expiration of 10 hours to the
concerned staff that it will be required to perform
running duty for 2 hours more; provided total
maximum hour of duty at a stretch from signing
on to signing off shall not exceed 12 hours.

33. • the matter Running Staff from signing on to signing off, was
reviewed by the Ministry of Railways and in 1981 instructions were
issued in supersession of all previous orders on the subject that
Ministry of Railways have decided that 10 hours rule as applicable
to the running staff should be implemented subject to the following
• provisions:
•
• 1. The under-mentioned periods will count for duty under the 10
• hours rule
•
• (i) Engine attendance time as prescribed; and
•
• (ii) Time taken from the starting station up to crew changing
• stations including intermediate detentions;

34. PART A HOURS OF WORK
• 1 SUSTAINED ATTENTION
• Mental efforts or
• Continuous concentration
• For example
• Points man – arrival of train
• ASM - line clear work till dispatch of
train

35. • 2 time taken to coming and to going from
residence is not counted towards as duty
example -Gang man - tool box*

36. Continuous work
i) Proceed with forced period of inaction
ii) Doing hard manual labour
iii) take 5 minute rest ,yet his work remain
continuous

37. 3 Intensive work
• (i) strenuous nature of the work tending to
cause mental or physical strain
• (ii) continuous application to such work with
little or no period of relaxation.
• This is considered to have been satisfied
where
• period of inaction
• or relaxation do not aggregate 6 hours
• or more in a cycle of 24 hours or one hour or
more in a shift of 8 hours.

38. • Categories
• Section controllers
• ASM
• WIRELESS OPERATOR

39. Essentially Intermittent work
• If daily duty hours which should be assumed to
be 12 hour/day include
• one period of inaction of not less than one hour
or two such periods of not less than half an hour
each AND
• various periods of inaction (including that above)
aggregating 50% or more during which he is not
called upon to show either physical activities or
sustained attention.
• NOTE : In calculating above, periods of inaction of
less than 5" shall be ignored.

40. Excluded a staff
a) Saloon attendant
b) Care taker of rest house
c) Gatekeeper of C class level crossing
d) Bungalow Peon
e) Matron, sister in charge midwives, Lady health
visitors, Help educator Male, Female, ANM
In edition to above ministry of railway may
specified any railway staff in any department AS
excluded staff.

41. Limitation of hours of work( statutory)
Classification Working hour including
P&C
Weekly Rest 71 D
Essentially intermittent 75 hours 24 hours Including Full night
Continues 54 hours 30 hours
Intensive 45 hours 30 hours
Excluded - 24 hours fort night
Running Staff (Traffic & Loco
Motive)
As par schedule 4 period not less than 30
Consecutive hour.
5 period not less than 22
Consecutive hour.

42. Daily rest
• Classification
• Essentially intermittent ------- 8 hrs
• Continuous -------- 10 hrs
• Intensive -------- 12 hrs
• Running Staff (Traffic & Loco Motive)
• A) at HQ i) duty less than 8 hrs------12 hrs
• ii) 8 hrs or more ------16 hrs
• B) at out station
• i)less than 8 hrs ------2/3
• ii)8 hrs or more ------ 8 hrs

43. Credit for time spent in taking and
making over
• If time is significant
• If less than 15 minutes shall ignored
• A) ‘Cont’ ½ hrs daily ,if estimated time less
than 45 minutes
• one hrs daily if estimated work is more than
45 minutes
• B) Intensive and E.I.- 3 hrs /week

44. Rostered duty hours
• CONT = 51 hrs or 54 hrs per week
• INT = 42 hrs or 45 hrs /week
• E .I. = 72 hrs or 75 hrs /week
• EXCLUDED = no statutory limit but on humanitarian
ground unreasonable should not imposed by
administration

45. Travelling on duty
• Travelling as passenger
• More than 4 hrs duty
• ‘E.I’ staff full credit
• ‘Cont’ 2/3 duty

46. Waiting at place of duty
• Waiting but not resting counted for duty
• For example
Loco Pilots and Guard

47. SPLITS SHIFT
• Punctuation of duty by giving break daily
• This not to treated as duty
• Conditions
• Two break and three spells of duty
• Break less than ½ hrs ignored
• If 3 spells of duty ,quarter is must
• Spread over is limited to 16 hrs .
• If night broken 14 hrs

48. RAILWAY LABOUR TRIBUNAL 1969
• GOVT has accepted the RLT award for hours of
work of railway employees governed by
employment regulations and consists
• 1. standard duty hrs
• Cont. 48 HRS
• Int . 42 hrs
• E.I. 48

49. • 2. in addition to above
• Time requires for preparatory and
complementary ,where it necessary
• This is in addition to duty hrs
• This can determine by job analysis. If
introduce for new category

50. • 3 in case of E.I. worker additional work
• a) Gateman c , care taker and saloon attended
• b) EI worker posted at road side and provided
with railway accommodation within 0.5 km
• ( a & b additional 24 hrs)
• C) rest of E.I. Additional 12 hrs
• Additional hrs w.e.f 1-8-74

51. Temporary exemption
4 Railway servant governed by H.E.R can be
called upon to render duty beyond statutory
limit as prescribed under section 71 -c
5 Signing on and signing off to running would
continue to apply

52. • Provision for saloon attendant
• When they are away from headquarter
• Need to relieve en route
• They may be given long off at HQ

53. Daily rest
• Classification
• Essentially intermittent ------- 8 hrs
• Continues -------- 10 hrs
• Intensive -------- 12 hrs
• Running Staff (Traffic & Loco Motive)
• A) at HQ i) duty less than 8 hrs------12 hrs
• ii) 8 hrs or more ------16 hrs
• B) at out station
• i)less than 8 hrs ------2/3
• ii)8 hrs or more ------ 8 hrs

54. WEEKLY REST
CONT 30 HRS
INT 30 HRS
E.I. 24 HRS *
COMBINATION OF LEAVE WITH REST

55. 1 Compensatory period of rest
2 compensatory off
3 locomotive and traffic running staff
a) away from H Q not more than 3 or 4 days
b) periodic rest at HQ include night in bed
c) at least once in 10 days

56. PROVISION OF REST GIVER
• NO INCONVIENINCE DUE TO LONG ON OR SHORT
OFF
• NO VIOLATION OF 71 D
• IN CASE ROUND THE CLOCK, PROVIDE REST BY
DEPUTING REST GIVER
• IF REST HAS BEEN SUSPENDED ,COMPENSATORY
REST MAY BE GIVEN WITH IN ONE MONTH
• EXCLUDED STAFF WITHIN 2 MONTH

57. • Provision rest giver
• R G is requires to provide rest ot employee
weekly for CONT and EI
• No need for RG in intensive classification
• In case CONT 1: 6
• In case E.I. 1:3 OR 2:5

58. RLT AWARD REGARDING REST
• CLARIFICATION
• NO RAILWAY SERVANT SHALL WORK MORE THAN
14 DAYS AT A STRETCH WITHOUT PERIODIC REST
• THIS PROVISION ALREADY EXISTS IN H.E.R 1961
• FORFIETURE OF PERIODIC REST ONLY IN
EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

59. NIGHT
• 22.00 P.M. TO 6 A.M.
• FULL NIGHT
• Staff who employed in continuous duty should
transfer to day duty
• Running staff should not booked more than six
night at stretch

60. CLASSIFICATION OF REST GIVER
• NARMALLY REST GIVER MAY BE PROVIDED FROM
THE SAME CLASSIFICTION
• IF NECESSARY , partially to CONT and EI
• IF PERIOD IS EQUALLY DEVIDED ,TREATED AS
CONT
• IN CASE RELIEVE FOR MAJOR PORTION OF WEEK
CLASSICATION,TREATED SAME TO WHOM HE
RELIEVE
• IF CONT WORKER WORK 3DAYS TO CONT AND
3DAYS TO E.I., HIS DUTY HRS SHOLD NOT EXCEED
FROM 54/ WEEK

61. Rest to Running Staff
• Running staff will have a link roster with
standard hours 104 hours and statutory limit
of 108 hours.
• Link should be such that it wont exceed 10
hours from "signing on" to "Signing off".
• They are given 4 periods of rest 30
consecutive hours or 5 periods of 22
consecutive hours each including a full night

62. Machinery for internal check
• Each Railway administration should ensure
that provision under hours of employment
shall implemented in true spirit and letter
• And get attend the reference from REGIONAL
LABOUR COMMISSIONER OR LABOUR
INSPECTOR