All rail staff agree to return to work today

All State Railway of Thailand employees will return to work today, after their stoppage that ran for days on the northern and northeastern routes and for two weeks on the southern route cost the state enterprise Bt115 million.

Deputy SRT governor Thawin Samnakorn said yesterday that management led by governor Yuthana Thapcharoen had agreed to the workers' 10-point proposal during negotiations on Wednesday.

Train services will resume, but it remains unclear when they would be 100 per cent ready.

The first trains are set to leave Hat Yai station, the southern hub, at 6.30am bound for Sungai Kolok and Chumphon.

Since the strike started on August 28, management has tried to convince members of the labour union to return to work.

As of yesterday, services in the North, Northeast and East were 100 per cent operational. On the southern route, only 26 of 64 trains were running, mostly on short hauls. Among the 38 cancelled services are six freight trains.

In the initial stage of the work stoppage, the SRT lost Bt17.5 million a day, Thawin said. But when all trains resumed operations, except the southern ones, the SRT recouped Bt12.1 million of the daily loss, excluding losses from the southern service of Bt5.4 million a day.

The damage from the loss of ticket sales and cargo shipment revenue until yesterday totalled Bt115 billion.

An SRT source said the agency still needed to talk with those companies whose business was disrupted by the work stoppage, to convince them not to file for compensation.

"We'll tell them that this stems from a national problem, and this barred us from transporting goods as agreed," the source said.

Cement and fuel product shipments had taken the brunt of losses, the source said.

The Port Authority of Thailand also faces possible claims from transport companies for the three-day work stoppage at Bangkok Port, which forced shippers to turn to Laem Chabang and nearby private ports.

Transport companies are prepared to sue for damages to set a precedent that would remind the agency's workers that they should not take public services hostage to win political points.

The 10 demands in the labour union's proposal submitted on Wednesday to SRT management include providing leniency from punishment for all state workers involved in the labour action and seeking a revision to a Cabinet resolution that bars the SRT from recruiting new employees.  Workers also asked that the SRT maximises its benefits from renewing Central Group's ground lease for SRT land.

Most demands had already won agreement after a brief strike during the Surayud Chulanont government.