Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

CLEVELAND, January 13 The BLET has successfully secured an important clarification from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) concerning an interpretation of a key provision of an amendment to the Hours of Service (HOS) laws made by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

The provision is contained in 49 U.S.C. Section 21103(e), which states that a railroad carrier, and its officers and agents, shall not communicate with [a] train employee by telephone, by pager, or in any other manner that could reasonably be expected to disrupt the employees rest during statutory off-duty periods of 10 or more consecutive hours and interim periods of release of 4 or more but less than 10 consecutive hours.

Interim interpretations issued by FRA in the summer of 2009 stated that communications initiated by an employee do not constitute disruptions, and this interpretation was communicated to the BLET membership by numerous means. However, after receiving conflicting advice from a now retired official in the FRAs national office one region of the FRA advised a BLET general committee officer last summer that calls made by employees during their statutory off-duty period for the purpose of ascertaining when their next duty tour would begin constituted an interruption of the off-duty period, necessitating that it be restarted. The railroad involved then posted a notice to this effect and began refusing such calls.

Last November, after being unable to resolve this dispute informally, Vice President Steve Bruno, who was Director of Regulatory Affairs at the time, wrote the FRA to formally request that the agency affirm its prior interpretation. Bruno pointed out that the statutory language clearly did not include such a call from an employee as a disruption, reminded FRA that our understanding of the law was uniformly shared by the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee Working Group that had revised the 49 C.F.R. Part 228 HOS recordkeeping requirements, and noted that someones ability to manage rest is enhanced considerably by the predictability of knowing when they are scheduled to report for duty or when they should expect the assignment phone call.

On January 12 FRA Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety and Chief Safety Officer Jo Strang acknowledged that the interim interpretations are silent on whether there are any limits to the matters that may be discussed [during an employee-initiated communication], and do not specifically address whether an employee is permitted to contact the railroad carrier to establish a report-for-duty time [during a statutory off-duty period or period of interim release]. FRA also stated that further clarification of this subject is being considered as FRA moves toward adopting final interpretations, and that no enforcement action would be taken against railroads that accept and respond to such inquiries from their operating employees.

Copies of the correspondence can be found here:
November 2, 2010 BLET letter to FRA:
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/Bruno_strang.pdf

January 12, 2011 FRA letter to BLET
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/Bruno_letter_blet.pdf

Thursday, January 13, 2011
bentley@ble.org