Finnair pilots launch industrial action - overtime ban takes effect from late Tuesday night

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Finnair pilots started an overtime ban at midnight last night, in order to expedite labour agreement negotiations with the employer.
      At the same time the pilots told the National Conciliator Juhani Salonius that negotiations with the Association of the Support Service Industries and Finnair had been interrupted once again.
      Holiday flights were left outside the scope of the overtime ban. According to Finnair, the industrial action should not affect any scheduled flights in the next few days.
      The conflict is over the terms of employment of around 800 pilots. Finnair pilots have been working without a valid employment contract since the beginning of May.
     
In the multiphase negotiations it was finally pondered on which terms the present contract could be continued. Peter Forsström, managing director of the Association of Support Service Industries, reported that the employer's side had offered a 3.7% salary increase in exchange for six months of extra time, but the pilots had insisted on an 11-month continuation to their labour agreement with a 7.5% pay rise and a 7.5% one-off payment on top of that.
      According to Forsström, the demand is unreasonable and untenable, considering the airline industry’s present economic plight. “In the last two three weeks the situation has taken a very distinct turn for the worse.”
     
The negotiations were last broken off at the beginning of May, when the pilots called for a salary increase of over 20 per cent over three years, a demand the employer side readily dismissed. At that time the ban on overtime work imposed by pilots caused a few flights to be cancelled.
      The pilots’ side terminated the ban when Salonius presented his proposal for a settlement. This proposal, however, was rejected by the pilots after a vote among the members a week ago.
      After that the quarrelling parties have negotiated and new suggestions have been presented by both sides.
      The average earnings of a Finnair pilot are around EUR 10,000 per month.


Links:
  Finnair statement 3.6.2008

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