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Station Staff Roster

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ChrisTheRef

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Just a quick post for any station staff, could you give an idea as to how your roster works?

Ours seems ridiculous, giving us 4 days off every 3 weeks.

One week of lates, 6 hours, something like 1810-0010. Mon-Sat, one of which is a rest day.
From 1810-0010 on the Saturday, we then do 1530-0010 on Sunday, straight onto a 0945 start on Monday (hidden rules are 9hr turnaround for station staff)

Week two is Middles. 9.5hrs with a 30 min unpaid break. 0945-1915. Again, it's Mon-Sat, of which one will be a rest day.
After 0945-1915 on Saturday, we go to 0745-1630 on Sunday, then onto a 0530 start on the Monday.

Week three is Earlies. 0530-1130 Mon-Sat with one rest day.
After that Saturday, the Sunday is off, leaving a small break from 1130 on Saturday before returning to work at 1810 on Monday.


It means we're in work virtually every day, and as rest days don't particularly follow on from each other, sometimes you have to do 0945-1915 for 5 days in a row, an early sunday then 0530 starts three or four times before a day off.

I'm sure there's a better way of doing it. Ideas from other TOCs are welcome.
 
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Beveridges

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When I was station staff ages ago, 35 hour week obviously, shift length 8 hrs 45, 4 day week. Sundays were voluntary overtime, day off if you dont want it. 21 week cycle. Example of the pattern was:

RD, RD, Late, Late, Late, Late, Sunday (Off)
Late, Late, RD, RD, Early, Early, Sunday (Off)
Early, Early, Early, Early, RD, RD, Sunday (Off)
RD, RD, Late, Late, Late, Late, Sunday (Off)
 
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barrykas

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Our Ticket Office rosters are based on a 35 hour week (with Sundays outside) so you generally do 5*7 hour shifts with one Rest Day each week.

Dispatchers are also on a 35 hour week, but because their roster incorporates a week of nights, their hours are all over the place.
 

RJ

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One of the rotas I used to be on - Sundays were all voluntary. Having 5 days off in a row every 3 or 4 weeks was good.

Early Sunday - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD - RD
Sunday off - RD - RD - Late - Late - Late - Late
Late Sunday - Late - Late - RD - RD - Early - Early
As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req
Early Sunday - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD - RD
Sunday off - RD - RD - Late - Late - Late - Late
Sunday off - Late - Late - RD - RD - Early - Early
Early Sunday - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD - RD
Sunday off - RD - RD - Late - Late - Late - Late
Long Sunday - Late - Late - RD - RD
As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req - As Req
Late Sunday - Middle - Middle - Middle - Middle - Middle - Middle
Sunday off - Early - Early - Early - Early - Early - Early
 

Geeves

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The despatchers roster at Manchester Victoria has 16 different shift patterns and the turn lengths are 7 hours

We get two long weekends with in 3 weeks of one another and then nothing for 13 weeks...

You have one restday per week that floats about except on the night turns where you start on Sunday at 23:00 (some times 18:00) and work all the way through to the the next Sunday finishing at 06:00 ready to start back again on Monday.

Minimum of 12 hours between each shift, 72 hours per week (it happens) 13 days in a row before Hidden.

05:45 - 12:45 (Long weekend) Friday - Monday
16:30 - 23:30
23:30 - 06:00
16:00 - 23:00 (long weekend) Friday - Monday
07:00 - 14:00
Mixed Lates
15:00 - 22:00 BS
07:30 - 14:30
Mixed early to late BS
23:00 - 06:00
13:30 - 20:30
Mixed late to early BS
09:00 - 16:00
14:00 - 21:00 BS
12:30 - 19:30 BS
06:00 - 13:00 BS

BS Ive put at the end for Booked Sundays although sometimes you get extra. Its very easy to give up your booked Sundays as someone will always take them if they need the money. Its not an amazing roster, but I cant see it changing any time soon.

In response to Chris, if you wanna swap no Weekends for 13 weeks for every three weeks Im ready!!!
 
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Beveridges

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Thanks guys.

Beveridges, who worked your Sundays? Were there always enough volunteers?

Well it was only 1 Sunday in 3 or 4 that you were given the option to work, and if you didnt want it, you didn't come in, volunteers available or not!!!!! But more than 9 times out of 10, there was.
 

Greenback

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FGW always provided a minimum of 12 hours rest between shifts for all staff. I did work 72 hours one week, then I had to stop! I also worked more than 12 hours one Sunday and got a telling off from both the union and the manager, even though I thought it was OK because I was helping out during severe disruption!

In the ticket office my long weekend was 3 days every 4 or 6 weeks, and there were 11 straight working days before that if I remember correctly. No nights though, except when the Reading Festival was on!
 

Thomas6187

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My roster at Piccadilly is spilt over 22 weeks, 35 hours per week over 4 day(8.45 hours)
The early start we have is 05:00 and the latest finish is 23:45. I also have 2 weeks of nights. I have 4x5 day long weekends and 3x3 day long weekend.

The TPE staff who work at Piccadilly have very different roster. 12 hours on, 12 off(06:00-18:00/18:00-06:00) and 19:00-07:00/07:00-19:00). 4 day on, 4 off
 

attics26

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7 lates Wed - Tues (anything from 1400-2115 to 1455-2300)- 2 RDs Wed Thurs -7 earlies Fri - Thurs (0600-1405 to 0700-1530) then 5 RDs Fri - Tues, with extra 2 RDs Wed and Thurs of earlies week every 15 weeks. Included in 15 week roster is 3 weeks of relief where shifts change due to Annual Leave, vacancies etc. Also every 12 weeks we owe company 6 hours which is used as briefing day (and is much anticipated ... not)
 

senhelm

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Can anyone advise me if this sounds accurate - I am about to go for my interview as CSA and I have heard from someone that the shifts mean that I only get every 6th Saturday off and I have to work every other Sunday. I thought I would be looking at roughly 1 full weekend, 1 half weekend, 1 weekend off?
 

ChrisTheRef

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Can anyone advise me if this sounds accurate - I am about to go for my interview as CSA and I have heard from someone that the shifts mean that I only get every 6th Saturday off and I have to work every other Sunday. I thought I would be looking at roughly 1 full weekend, 1 half weekend, 1 weekend off?

That sounds similar to mine. Who is the position with?
 

GB

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FGW always provided a minimum of 12 hours rest between shifts for all staff. I did work 72 hours one week, then I had to stop! I also worked more than 12 hours one Sunday and got a telling off from both the union and the manager, even though I thought it was OK because I was helping out during severe disruption!

Poor show from your "manager" there I thinks. If it were me and he wanted help in future I'd have told him to stick it.

You can exceed 12 hours (I average about 1 exceedance per year), the union doesn't like it and as such will generally not back you once you pass 12.
 

barrykas

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A lot of it depends on the attitude of your Manager. One of mine in a previous existence would often ask you to stay on at short notice, but "adjust" the hours on the time sheet to make it more worth your while. And if you exceeded 12 hours (e.g. due to disruption) he'd just get you to transfer the additional time to another day so as not to break Hidden on paper.

Oddly enough, people were always willing to help him out as a result...
 

whhistle

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I also worked more than 12 hours one Sunday and got a telling off from both the union and the manager, even though I thought it was OK because I was helping out during severe disruption!

We have a rule that in extreme cases, you can work more than 12 hours but after the 12th hour, if you're safety crit you can't do any further safety crit work (IE dispatching) just in case something happens but as an extra body on the platform, it helps. You should try suggesting this next time :)

Work hours that I am aware of are all over the place. For example:

SUN - SAT
Early - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD - RD
RD - RD - RD - Nights - Nights - Nights - Nights
Nights - Nights - Nights - RD - RD - Lates - Lates
Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - RD - RD

RD - RD - RD - Early - Early - Early - Early
Early - Early - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD
RD - RD - RD - Nights - Nights - Nights - Nights
Nights - Nights - Nights - RD - RD - RD - Lates
Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - RD - RD

Lates could be classed as a "middle" shift.


But then other rosters are a bit easier:

IN - Early - Early - Early - Early - Early - Early
Spare - Lates - RD - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates
RD - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD - Early
IN - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates

Spare - Early - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD
RD - RD - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates
IN - Early - Early - Early - RD - Early - Early
Spare - Lates - RD - Lates - Lates - Lates - Lates
RD - Early - Early - Early - Early - RD - Early
IN - Lates - Lates - RD - Lates - Lates - Lates

IN being a 12 hour shift.
Yet the above roster is a simple set of shifts, I don't know why they don't make the roster simple either :/
 

9K43

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If you are Safety Critical, under no circumstances do you work over 12 hours and bank the excess hours.
The same mananger will daube you if anything happens after 12 onduty.
Look at the ROGS Regulations, they say if you are so fatigued, and you suspect you would effect another Safety Critical worker, you pack your bag and go home.
We had rosters with no more that 5 working days without a Rest Day.

Look at this.
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/rogs-guidance-sept12.pdf

Rgulation 25.1 will tell you about rosters etc.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
ROGs 25(1)

What duty holders must do – fatigue
7.10 Fatigue (extreme tiredness) has been identified as one of the main causes of incidents on
the railways. It can lead to workers becoming less alert or motivated, or making more mistakes
or poor decisions. Controllers must make sure that workers do not carry out safety-critical tasks
if they are affected by fatigue (or would be affected if they carried out the task) in a way that also
affects health and safety. This includes the effects fatigue itself has on the health of the worker.
The work factors that influence fatigue levels normally include:
• how long a worker has been awake;
• how overtime is controlled;
• the nature of the work (for example, where workers have to carry out repetitive tasks
or where a task requires a very high level of alertness);
• the workload and working environment;
• a roster that prevents workers from getting enough sleep between shifts;
• workers’ sleep being disturbed because they are ‘on-call’;
• how often workers have breaks;
• recovery time during periods of work; and
• how long it takes workers to travel to and from work.
7.11 To assess the risk of fatigue, the controller must look at and deal with the causes
 

GB

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If you are Safety Critical, under no circumstances do you work over 12 hours and bank the excess hours.

You can't be rostered over 12 hours, but you can exceed this on the day in times of disruption and providing you agree to it. Your company will then have to fill out an exceedance form which then gets audited.

In a normal 8 hour shift roster you can work upto (and including) 13 days before having a day off...again providing you have agreed to it.

The set in stone rules surrounding rostering are not what they used to be.
 

Beveridges

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The work factors that influence fatigue levels normally include:
• how long a worker has been awake;
• how overtime is controlled;
• the nature of the work (for example, where workers have to carry out repetitive tasks
or where a task requires a very high level of alertness);
• the workload and working environment;
• a roster that prevents workers from getting enough sleep between shifts;
• workers’ sleep being disturbed because they are ‘on-call’;
• how often workers have breaks;
• recovery time during periods of work; and
• how long it takes workers to travel to and from work.
I cant believe it misses out the biggest cause of fatigue.
Finishing times (if working nights)
Starting times (if working earlies)
Also turnaround times between finishing a batch of lates/nights and starting an early shift. Who can go straight from working three 1900-0700's to a 0700-1900 shift with just 1 or 2 RDs inbetween, without losing a lot of sleep? yet because it always gives at least 12 hrs rest between shifts, its seen as acceptable.
 

GB

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Also turnaround times between finishing a batch of lates/nights and starting an early shift. (who can go straight from working three 1900-0700's to a 0700-1900 shift with just 1 or 2 RDs inbetween, without losing a lot of sleep?)

That would be covered by...

• a roster that prevents workers from getting enough sleep between shifts;
 

9K43

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If you have problems with your roster, get together and make a new roster which suits you not some university whizz kid thats has no idea of which end you use on a shunt pole.
 

whhistle

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But then some guys I know at one station work until 9pm, then back in at 6am. No 12 hour rest there.

Seems individual companies have their own rules. But this is to be expected with individual private companies running sections of the railway.

Plus, some people can't afford not to / want to take shifts, whether this leads to fatigue or not.
 

9K43

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Every manager that I have met whilst doing HSWA inspections, had thier own version of that act.
These are the mangers that will stand by and let you break the rules, and when the crap hits the fan they will take your job off you.
Safety must be the first priority of all employees on the railway.
There is only one rule book and legislation is meant for all companies so do not run away with the idea that one Railway company can ignore Statutes and the Rule book, whilst another one adheres to the rules.

English phrase 'strength and wisdom' is Fortitudo et sapientia.(Wisdom is strength.)
 
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