Finnair had to cancel more than one hundred flights on Friday due to a labour dispute between the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU) and Service Sector Employers (Palta).
The work stoppage planned by the ground handling and security control staff at airports for the early hours of Tuesday, 14 March, has been called off, reports Minna Helle, the National Conciliator of Finland.
The efforts to resolve the dispute over the terms and conditions of employment adopted by Airpro, a provider of airport services, are set to continue at 10am on Tuesday.
Helle says she is pleased with the decision to call off the strike, which was initially scheduled to take place between 3am and 9am on Tuesday. The decision, she estimates, should facilitate the negotiations between the parties to the dispute, the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU) and Service Sector Employers (Palta).
“There has yet been any ground-breaking progress in the negotiations, but the preconditions for continuing the negotiations exist,” she says in a press release.
IAU has issued a strike warning also for 17 March, 22 March, 23 March and 24 March. Finavia, the state-owned operator of airports in Finland, says it remains premature to estimate the effects of the possible strikes on air services and reminds that airports will provide real-time information on arriving and departing flights via their websites.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva
