ATC VDU regs and rosters
 

Hello there.

I work in railway signalling in an IECC which is VDU based. Managemant are trying to cut costs by restricting the breaks we have by stating that every time we look away from the screen that counts as a VDU break.

I was wondering if there is anyone on here from Swanwick who would be prepared to share their base roster and how there rest breaks work etc and what sort of duties they do including any VDU regs they may have. If you would rather do it via a PM then that would be fine! Either way suits me.

I hope someone can help as we are desperate not to incur redundancies and are trying to find out anything that may assist us!

Many thanks.

James

I'm not from Swanwick but I maybe I can offer some info. Just in case you're not familiar with it, there is guidance on the regulations on the HSE web site.

ATC working positions are subject to the regulations. There are also regulatory rules designed to avoid fatigue in controllers (but these are not applicable to support staff who also tend to use display screens too).. These rules are known as the Scheme for Regulation of the Hours of Civil ATCOs in the UK - or SRATCOH. There are all sorts of ins and outs but essentially it says that controllers must have at least 30 minutes of break from an operational position after (or during) two hours.

I'm not sure whether this has been formally tested with the HSE but I believe that this is far more, with respect to breaks, than the HSE would expect under the DSE regs.

Thanks for the reply, I will forward the info/link to our Health and Safety bod. He has probably seen it but it can't hurt to have it twice!

Our main concern is that Signallers look at the VDUs for 2 hours and then have a break.

The management state that if they look away from the screen for a split second that means they are not using them constantly! So are lookingn to reduce the breaks to the bare minimum (10 minutes per hour)

Once again, thanks for the info.

James