The lawful heirs of 12 people who died when the State Audit Office (SAO) building collapsed were each paid Bt1 million in compensation today by Italian-Thai Development and China Railway No. 10 (Thailand), the joint venture responsible for the building's construction.
Nine injured workers received Bt200,000 each at the offices of the Law Council of Thailand.
The two companies had already paid funeral costs of 50,000 baht to the families of each deceased person, and 10,000 baht in initial compensation to each of the nine injured.
The companies sought help from the Law Council of Thailand and the Justice Ministry to manage the compensation payments, after several cases of duplicate claims were made by relatives of the deceased.
Sunthorn Payak, secretary-general of the Law Council of Thailand, said today that the compensation paid by the two companies is separate from the compensation currently being pursued through litigation.
He added that relatives of those killed and injured are entitled to file lawsuits against Italian-Thai Development Plc and China Railway No. 10 (Thailand) Company, and that the Law Council has set up a committee to handle the litigation.
