Finnair pilots to enforce strike on Friday as negotiation fails

The negotiation between the Service Sector Employers- Palta and the Finnish Air Line Pilots' Association -SLL has been foiled on Wednesday without any solution leading the pilots of the national flag carrier Finnair to observe their pre-scheduled strike on Friday.

The SLL on Wednesday rejected the settlement proposal submitted on Monday by the National Conciliator, said Finnair in a press release.

Palta and SLL have been negotiating on a collective labour agreement for Finnair pilots since August.

Meanwhile, SLL will start a standby ban on Finnair pilots on Thursday, which, together with the already ongoing overtime ban, will impact Finnair’s flight operations and lead to cancellations of individual flights.

During the standby ban, pilots will not come to work from on-call shifts, so when a pilot falls ill, for example, on-call pilots are unavailable and the flight has to be cancelled.

"Unfortunately, cancellations resulting from these industrial actions come at very short notice and disrupt our customer’s travel plans," said Jaakko Schildt, Chief Operating Officer of Finnair.

Earlier, the Finnish Air Line Pilots' Association observed strike on Monday resulting cancelation of about 140 flights.

Finnish Pilots’ Association (The Suomen Lentäjäliitto) and Finnish commercial pilot association (Suomen Liikennelentäjäliiton (SLL) called strike on December 9 and December 13 protesting against the austerity measures and demanding a new collective agreement.

Earlier on November 23, Finnair decided to cancel about 300 flights on December 9 and December 13 due to the strike.