RAILWAY SERVANTS (HOURS OF

WORK & PERIOD OF REST) RULES’2005

Railway Servants(Hours of Employment) Rules’ 1961 have

been amended by introducing Railway Servants(Hours
of Work & Period of Rest) Rules 2005 by the notification
(GSR NO.75)dt. 28.02.05 in exercise of powers conferred
by section 136 of the Railway Act’1989
These rules may be called the Railway Servant (HoWPoR)
Rules’2005.
It shall come in to force from the date of publication in
the gazette i.e . dt. 28.02.2005
DEFINITIONS ( Rule -2):
FULL NIGHT- Period between 10.00 PM to 6.00 AM
NIGHT DUTY– Duty between 22.00hrs to 6.00 hrs.
ROSTER-Means a document which shows the hours that
Rly. Servant is expected to be on duty everyday, daily as
well as weekly rest & break between spells of duty in
day besides other particulars.
LONG ON
 Means period of duty over
 8 hours in case of Intensive employment roster
 10 hours in Continuous employment roster
 12 hours in EI employment roster
SHORT OFF means period of rest which is—
1. Less than 10 hours in the case of continuous worker.
2. Less than 8 hours in the case of EI worker.
3. In the case of Intensive worker, Less than 12 hours in a
roster of 6 hour duty and Less than 14 hours in a mixed
roster of six and 8 hrs. duty.
Road side station: A station other than,
i. An important junction yard.
ii. A station with marshalling yard
iii. An important terminal stn.
iv. A stn from which trains are ordered as a regular measure.
v. A station where a goods office under supervisory of chief
goods clerk.
• Roster: means a document which shows the
hours that a railway servant is expected to be
on duty every day, the daily as well as weekly
rest and break between spells of duty in a day
besides other necessary particulars.
• Split Duty: means duty in two or more spells
with intervening breaks each of half or more
hour necessitated by exigencies of work and
when the employee is free to leave his place
of duty. Intervals for rest and meals shall not
be breaks for the purpose of split-duty.
SUSTAINED ATTENTION :

• This implies mental effort, when a Railway

servant is called upon to display high levels
of concentration and or physical activity.
• For example , a Pointsman waiting for the
arrival of a train after setting points is
required to give sustained attention .
Similarly a SM/ASM is required to pay
sustained attention from the time of line
clear till the arrival of the train etc.
Prescribed Authority to classify the Employment of Rly. Servant Rule 3 & 4

• PRESCRIBED AUTHORITY
 The powers to declare the employment of

railway servant as INTENSIVE, ESSENTIALLY

INTERMITTENT or CONTINUOUS are vested
with the Head of Railway Administration I.e GM
further who can delegate the power to PCPO.
 Appeal against Classification lies to RLC with in 90

days of declaration and then Secretary to Govt. of

India in the Ministry of Labour
• Supervisory staff (Rule 5):
• The Ministry of Labour shall, by order in
writing, specify the railway servants or classes
of Railway servants who shall be treated as
supervisory staff under sub-clause of clause (c)
of section 130 on the ground that the Railway
servant holds a position of responsibility, is
employed on duties mainly of a supervisory
character and is, from the nature of his work
and position, comparatively free to adjust his
hours of duty or work during such hours
 Criteria for determining classification of
railway servants (Rule-7)
• Continuous : All employments of Railway
servants except those excluded from the
purview of the Hours of Employment
Regulations are assumed to be 'Continuous'.
Thereafter, on the basis of factual job analysis
the employment may be classified either as
'intensive' or 'essentially intermittent', as the
case may be.
Intensive : The two important factors in declaring an
employment as 'intensive' under Clause (d) of section 130
of the Act are :-
•Strenuous nature of the work tending to cause mental or
physical strain; and
•Continuous application to such work with little or no
periods of relaxation.
Note: Explanation I : The term 'continued concentration' intended to
convey that the attention demanded of the Railway servant concerned
for a particular nature of job should be exclusive not to allow any other
thought or idea to enter the mind and must be of such nature as to
cause strain (physical or mental or both) Explanation II: Little or no
periods of rest should be considered to have been satisfied where the
periods of rest, inaction or relaxation do not aggregate 6 hours or more
in a cycle of 24 hours or one hour or more in a shift or 8 hours.
Essentially Intermittent :
•The work of an employee is to be regarded a
'essentially intermittent ' if his daily duty hours which
should be assumed to be twelve hours per 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 the period of
inaction specified in Clouse (a) aggregating 50 percent
or more, during which he is not generally called upon
to display either physical activities or sustained
attention.
 Fixation of hours of work as per classification
•Railway Administration shall fix the normal rostered
hours of work for the various categories of railway
servants in the manner indicated in these rules.
•The rostered hours of work of Railway servant shall
consist of –
•Standard hours of duty;
•Additional hours as may be prescribed in the case of
certain categories classified as essentially intermittent;
and
•Time required to do preparatory or complementary work
or both for those who are required to do such work.
The standard hours of duty for different classes of
employment of Railway servants shall be as under : -
•Intensive                          ---  42 hours a week;
•Continuous                       ---  48 hours a week; and
•Essentially intermittent ---  48 hours a week;
•Railway servants having essentially intermittent class
of employment shall called upon to work additional
hours as indicated below :
1. Gatemen 'C', Caretakers of Rest Houses and  24 addl
Reservoirs Etc, Chowkidars and Saloon Hours per
attendants. week
2. Railway servants posted to work in Essentially
Intermittent employment at road-side stations
and provided with residential quarters within
0.5 from their place of duty.
3. Rest of the employees posted to work in  12 addl
Essentially Intermittent class of employment Hours per
week
 P & C or both,
s.no Classification Maximum Limit
1 When employment is intensive  3 hours a week
2 When employment is continuous  6 hours a week
In case of running staff 4 hours a week
3 When employment is essentially  
intermittent :--
a. Gatemen 'C' Caretakers of Rest Houses 3 hours week;
and Reservoirs, chokidars, Saloon
Attendants and Those posted at road-
side stations and provided with
residential quarters within 500 meters
from their place of duty

b. Railway servants other than above 4 ½ hours a week

• Over time Allowance ( Rule -10):
• Where a Railway servant is required to render
extra hours of duty beyond the roster hours
fixed shall be paid overtime for such extra
hours of work subject to the principle of
averaging .
• For the excess hours of work rendered by a
railway servant between the limits of
prescribed rostered hours of work and the
Statutory hours of work period payment shall
be made as 1½ times the ordinary rate of pay;
and beyond the Statutory limits, two times the
ordinary rate of pay.
• For the payment of OTA Railway servants are
classified into 2 groups i.e. Avg group and Non-
Avg group.
• Avg group further classified into i) Weekly Avg
group and ii) Bi-Weekly Avg group.
• OTA is paid in Hourly rate.
• Rule-11: Register of extra hours of work-
• The particulars of all extra hours of work done by
a Railway servant beyond the prescribed rostered
hours of duty should be recorded in a register to
be maintained in Form 'A' appended to these
rules by the officer authorized in this behalf by
the Head of the Railway administration.
• Periodical Rest (Rule-12):
• Railway servant whose employment is
Continuous shall be granted, every week
commencing on a Sunday, rest of not less than
thirty consecutive hours.
• Railway servant whose employment is
Intensive shall be granted, every week
commencing on a Sunday, rest of not less than
thirty consecutive hours.
• Railway Servants whose employment is
essentially Intermittent, shall be granted rest
of not less than twenty four consecutive hours
including a full night.
• Locomotive or traffic running staff shall be
granted, each month, a rest of at least five
periods of not less than twenty two
consecutive hours of each, or a rest of at least
four periods of not less than thirty consecutive
hours of each including a full night.
• Staff on duty in running trains other than
locomotive and traffic running staff such as
Traveling Pay Clerks and Catering Staff
attached to Restaurant Cars shall be given
periodic rest on the scale and in the manner
laid down for the locomotive and traffic
running staff
Compensatory period of rest ( Rule-12):-
• No railway servant whose rest is suspended shall
not work for more than fourteen days without a
period of rest and shall be provided with
compensatory rest within this period.
• Display of rules and notice ( rule-15):-
• Every Railway Administration shall display in a
conspicuous place-
• Notices specifying the classification of employment
of railway servants; the duration of their hours of
employment, their period of rest and rosters; and
• A copy of Chapter XIV of the act and these rules in
English, Hindi and in local language in each station
or other establishment.
 STANDARD DUTY HOURS FOR VARIOUS
CLASSIFICATION

• Classification Std/Hrs. P&C R/Hrs. W.Rest Aver.Period

• INTENSIVE 42 3 45 30 Hrs 14 days

• ESSENTIALLY 60 4.5 75 24 Hrs 07 days

• INTERMITENT 72 3 ( Incl. Full night
in bed)

• CONTINUOUS 48 6 54 30 14 days

• EXCLUDED - - - -
 CALCULATION OF OVERTIME:
• The hourly rate of overtime shall be worked out on the
basis of
• rostered hours over the relevant averaging period as
under.
• (i) Hourly rate of Pay (for staff governed by Averaging Principle
• Period of averaging
• No. of rostered hours of work in the averaging period
X 1/30 of monthly ordinary rate of pay.
• (ii) Hourly rate of pay ( for those not governed by Averaging
Principle)
• Period of averaging
• No. of daily rostered Hrs of workX /30 of monthly ordinary rate
of pay
 DUTY HOURS OF LOCO AND TRAFFIC RUNNING STAFF

(1)The over all duty at stretch from signing on to

signing off should not exceed 11hrs
(2)The running duty should not ordinarily
exceed 9 hours at a stretch from “signing on
to signing off”
• (3) In operational exigencies duty may be
extended beyond 9hrs within 11hrs of duty
provided they have given alert notice before
completion of 7hrs duty by the controller.
 DUTY HOURS OF LOCO AND TRAFFIC
RUNNING STAFF
• (4) The duty at a stretch should be computed
from actual departure of the train for purpose
computing duty of 9 hrs or 11 hrs.
• (5) For the purpose of overtime payment ‘ the
hours of work shall be calculated from
“Signing on” to Signing off”
• (6) Night duty should not normally be
performed by R.G. Staff for more than 3 nights
at a stretch.
 Credit of duty hours
• For accompanying dead engines credit of 2/3 of time
spent.
• For accompanying engine on trail full credit.
• Engine attendance 45 mts before Dep 15 mts on
Arrvl.
• Passenger trains; 45 mts before Dep 15 mts on Arrvl.
• For goods train: 45 mts before Dep 30 mts on arrvl.
• For relief van& shunting trains 60 mts before Dep 15
mts on Arrvl.
 Rest after duty to loco and Traffic Running Staff.
• 1 Rest at Head quarters
• Irrespective of duty hrs rest should be 16 hrs ( incl
alert notice)
• 1 Rest at Out station:
• For duty less than 6hrs: duty performed hrs + 1 hr
• For duty more than 6 hrs but less than 8 hrs :6 hrs
• (2) For running duty of 8 hrs or more …8hrs.
• (3) The interval between short trips shall be treated
as duty, it is equal to or less than one hour plus time
allowed for train or engine advance after the trip and
before the trip.
Thank you