A German train strike that has disrupted passenger and commercial services and threatened to clip economic growth was suspended after both sides agreed to non-binding arbitration in the 10-month old dispute. The suspension would last through the arbitration period from May 27 to June 17. Deutsche Bahn said it will take until Saturday for its train timetable to be fully back on schedule. The GdL union and employers referred the dispute over pay and negotiating rights to arbitrators, suspending the ninth in a series of strikes over the last 10 months that have cost Europe's biggest economy up to 100 million euros a day and tarnished its image as a business hub. The leader of GdL, which represents just 20,000 of Deutsche Bahn's 200,000 employees, said the railways accepted its demand that it can negotiate for non-train drivers. That will not be part of the arbitration, said the union. But Deutsche Bahn, which carries 5.5 million commuters per day on a network of efficient high-speed trains, said it still hoped to avoid different pay deals for workers doing the same jobs but represented by different unions. "After a dispute that has lasted nearly a year, it was the pressure from the ninth strike that finally broke through the Gordian knot," said GDL leader Claus Weselsky. But his counterpart at Deutsche Bahn told a news conference: "This is a victory for reason. We demanded arbitration for all issues and we've achieved that with no pre-conditions. We won't accept any set-up with first- and second-class workers." The stoppage that began on Tuesday will be suspended at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Thursday, the GdL said. About 620,000 tonnes of freight, or a fifth of Germany's total freight, moves by rail each day, and economists warned the costs of a prolonged strike could be even higher - costing 750 million euros a day in lost output and cutting second-quarter economic growth by 0.1 percentage points. The two sides each nominated an arbitrator: the GDL picked Thuringia's state premier Bodo Ramelow, a leader of the Left party, and German rail picked Matthias Platzeck, a former Brandenburg state premier from the Social Democrats (SPD). The GDL union wants a 5 percent pay rise for its members, a shorter working week and the right to represent other workers in the company, such as train stewards. Deutsche Bahn has offered a 4.7 percent pay rise plus a one-off payment of 1,000 euros. (Reuters)