Initial agreement was reached on Monday in a labour dispute concerning pilots of the national airline Finnair.
Negotiators of the Finnish Airline Pilots' Association and the employers' side approved the mediation proposal put forward by National Conciliator Juhani Salonius in the evening.
The approval of the pilots' contract means that a ban on overtime working planned for Tuesday will not take place. The pilots had threatened to stop doing overtime immediately after midnight.
Both sides are to give their final word on to the agreement by May 13th.
Negotiations on the dispute continued throughout the day in the National Conciliator's office on Monday. The issues at hand focused mainly on questions of working hours and rest times. The pilots' old labour contract expired at the end of January.
The pilots demanded extensions to their rest times, while the employers' side would have agreed to keeping the terms at their present level. Airline Pilots' Association chairman Panu Mäki was pleased that there were some improvements made to the rest times.
The pay hikes in the agreement largely follow those of other sectors that were not part of the autumn's incomes agreement.
The contract affects about 650 pilots.
Helsingin Sanomat
26.4.2005 - TODAY
Initial agreement reached in Finnair pilots' labour dispute
Initial agreement reached in Finnair pilots' labour dispute