State Railway Corporation of Thailand sacks union leaders for protesting unsafe working conditions

To: WEBMASTER@OPM.GO.TH, publichearing@opm.go.th, Webmaster@thaigov.go.th, webmaster@mot.go.th, Info@railway.co.th, urata_mac@itf.org.uk
Subject: Protest Letter - State Railway Corporation of Thailand sacks union leaders for protesting at unsafe working conditions

To Office of the Permanent Secretary, Public Service Center, Office of Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Office of Permanent Secretary of Transport Ministry and the Minister, The State Railway of Thailand, ITFcopy

Ref: Protest Letter - State Railway Corporation of Thailand sacks union leaders for protesting at unsafe working conditions

Dear Sir/Madam

It is management's responsibility to guarantee agreed safety standards

We the undersigned write in support of the safety demands of the State Railway Workers’ Union of Thailand (SRUT).

It is the employers' responsibility to ensure the safe manning of trains and the maintenance of the infrastructure. Overworking train crews to maintain schedules as a result of a deliberate policy to reduce staff numbers is not an acceptable management policy.

The Union (SRUT) has informed us that this policy of staff reduction is leading to an increase in cases of driver crew fatigue which, in turn, can be a contributing factor in accidents. This fatigue is exacerbated by poor standards of machinery and infrastructure. It is unacceptable to hold any driver solely responsible for corporate failure.

The union also reports that the vast majority of safety devices on trains are not working correctly and therefore should never have been cleared by management to return to service.

This situation clearly indicates the liability of management in failing to meet agreed standards, and protect staff and the travelling public.

We the undersigned also condemn the use of the state administrative structure to target SRUT officers and officials. The use of police and the court to restrict the lawful functioning of a union for exposing serious shortcomings in your safety regimes is unacceptable. We support the union in its demand that as the employer the State Railway Corporation of Thailand implements agreed safety regimes. Blaming workers for structural failures in standards is totally unacceptable. We demand the reinstatement of all dismissed trade unionists and we demand you institute a Safety First regime as agreed with the railway union.

signed