Wage agreement reached at Skoda

Trade unions and management at Skoda Auto have reached agreement in a long-running pay dispute at the car-making plant. Workers' unions announced on Wednesday that they had accepted an offer of a pay increase of 12.7 percent beginning from April 1st next year. Employees will also receive a once-off payment of 2500 Czech crowns or just over 120 US dollars in July 2008. Earlier, thousands of Skoda workers had joined in a strike action on Tuesday in protest at their wages. No cars were produced at the factory in the course of the day and the company's losses were estimated to be 55 million crowns (or over 2.5 million US dollars). The deal now means that a threatened follow-up strike on Thursday will no longer go ahead.