Up to 60 workers not to get pay as Terrafame to halt plant for 4 weeks

State-owned mining and multi-metal company Terrafame has decided to bring the company’s battery chemicals plant to a halt for about four weeks, said the company in a press release on Friday.

The shutdown is a result of the industrial actions in Finland that have continued for several weeks and are affecting the logistics chain.

Because of the production shutdown, Terrafame has decided to suspend the payment of wages to the employees who will have no work during the shutdown caused by the strikes.

A total of about 140 employees work at the plant, and the suspension of wage payment is estimated to affect 50–60 employees.

The trade unions have been observing the strikes since March 11 protesting against the labour market reforms and cuts in working condition undertaken by the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) led four-party alliance government.

The unions, however, on Thursday decided to suspend their ongoing strikes from Monday.

Due to the strikes, Terrafame has not been able to execute the export deliveries of the products of its battery chemicals plant, which has forced Terrafame to store the products in its industrial area.

The possibilities for storing said products in the industrial area are limited due to, for example, restricted storage capacity and challenges in the availability of product containers.

During the shutdown, Terrafame will carry out early maintenance work at the plant. In addition, some of the plant personnel will be working on other assignments at Terrafame.

“So far, Terrafame has managed to continue its battery chemicals production despite the national strikes in Finland, even though the industrial conflict has caused challenges and uncertainties in maintaining production. Terrafame’s battery chemicals production serves the emerging electric mobility market in Europe in particular, and it is unfortunate that the company’s delivery reliability is suffering due to the strikes. Regrettably, our personnel is also affected by the halt in the production of the battery chemicals plant implemented due to the strikes,” said Seppo Voutilainen, Chief Executive Officer of Terrafame.

The shutdown of the battery chemicals plant will not affect Terrafame’s metal intermediates production.