Key Finnish industries resolve wage disputes

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Wage disputes in the Finnish technology and chemicals industries have been resolved, ending the risk of labour strikes that were due to begin next week, employers and a workers' union said on Sunday.

Last week, more than 7,000 workers of industries that included stainless steelmaker Outokumpu went on a three-day strike which was meant to expand to more than 10,000 industrial employees of companies such as Kone, Konecranes, Metso Outotec, Neste, Orion and SSAB between Feb. 8 and 10.

The agreement is a key step in defining workers' pay rises in Finland as the tech industry has traditionally been considered a benchmark for other unions' demands.

The Finnish Industrial Union said it had agreed to a two-year wage deal which will increase wages by 7% over two years for employees, including a one-off extra payment of 400 euros this year.

The wage deal covers some 90,000 industrial employees, it said, adding a similar deal was reached for some 13,000 chemical industry employees.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Toby Chopra)