EOFDLY Problems

I have a requirement to use a DB file as a tickler for a never ending
program.  

The program reads a LF that selects only records that have not been
processed.  

I have executed an override on the LF as follows: OVRDBF FILE(RATRTCKLR1)
EOFDLY(10).

The program works great, for the most part, it processes all unprocessed
records and then goes into a EOFW status.

Here is the problem:

Occasionally the program will terminate with a normal completion.  There
seems to be no consistency in this termination.  Sometimes it will terminate
after waiting anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours.

Has anybody experienced this sort of behavior using the EOFDLY?

We are currently running V5R1.


Thanks

Jon