The Expressway Authority of Thailand (Exat) labour union will ask the cabinet to delay its consideration of the Exat board's decision to extend concessions to Bangkok Expressway and Metro Plc (BEM) for over 30 years. The deal would see court-ordered compensation of 4.3-billion-baht for contractual violations, as well as other lawsuits, dropped. Yuwathisa Thanyacharoen, vice-president of the state enterprise's labour union, said the employees are opposed to the proposed extended concessions. The extended concessions are valued at 300 billion baht while damages from the lawsuits could be worth 130 billion baht, she said, noting that only one dispute worth 4.3 billion baht was finalised by the court and the rest have yet to be heard. The dispute involved Exat's construction of an expressway that runs parallel to the BEM-built and operated Bang Pa-in-Pak Kret Expressway.

Source: Bangkok Post May 25, 2019 23:26 UTC