Railway must decide employees’ overtime representations by a reasoned order within six weeks.

The 36 applicants, railway employees holding various posts in the Lumding Division, alleged that duty rosters issued in 2011 and on 28 March 2019 required them to work beyond eight hours without overtime allowance.

They sought changes to the rosters, payment of overtime, and related relief.

At the hearing, their counsel stated that the applicants would submit fresh representations and requested that the Tribunal direct the respondents to consider those representations.

The respondents raised no objection.

1. Whether the respondents should be directed to consider the applicants’ fresh representations concerning duty hours and overtime allowance and issue a reasoned decision

2. Whether the applicants’ claims to an eight-hour duty day and overtime allowance should be determined on their merits in this proceeding

The order cites no statute, service rule, or precedent and lays down no substantive rule concerning railway duty hours or overtime.

It applies a procedural course agreed to by the parties: the applicants may submit fresh representations, which the respondents must consider and decide by a reasoned and speaking order within the time directed by the Tribunal.

The Tribunal did not examine the legality of the duty rosters or determine whether the applicants were entitled to overtime.

Instead, it acted on the applicants’ request to pursue the matter through fresh representations, noting that the respondents did not object.

It therefore directed the respondents to treat the OA together with the fresh representations and decide the applicants’ cases by a reasoned and speaking order within six weeks of receiving a copy of the order.

It directed the applicants to submit fresh representations and the respondents to decide and communicate their decision within six weeks of receiving the order.

The applicants were granted liberty to file a fresh application if still aggrieved; any pending miscellaneous applications were also disposed of.