Maybe the railway should employ enough staff to cover all the shifts, then, with a proper on-call rota (as airlines do) to cover any where someone might not show up unexpectedly.
Indeed, isn't the failure to do this at the root of rather a lot of problems?
To be fair man power planning in airlines is often just as haphazard, although standby crew are generally sufficient I’ve worked at several airlines that have relied on good will and overtime over the summer periods too and even received a call at the end of standby asking me to (illegally) work a night flight after a day home standby had just finished.
This though, I have to say, is rare and a supervisor listening in on the call in control quickly apologised and put and end to it. Much like drivers though someone somewhere was willing to take a call on days off and get paid flat rate and a lieu day for the work.
As a rule I didn’t do overtime, unless it was really desperate, at said airline as it wasn’t paid at an enhanced rate and I valued my time at home more, my phone would often ring with the control number on days off and I chose to answer or not, as per contract, I never let it bother me that they were trying though. After all the immense pressure for control staff is often forgotten by crew (air or train), but if I was halfway into a night out there was little point in slurring an apology at an already busy crew controller.
