Helsinki, Finland, 17 December 2008 -- Metso has concluded employee negotiations on temporary lay-offs of personnel at the boiler workshop in Tampere, Finland. As a result, almost all of 175 employees at the workshop will be temporarily laid off as work on the production lines will cease. The lay-offs result from a reduction in the amount of work, caused by changes in the schedules of projects in the order backlog.

At the beginning, the temporary lay-offs will affect some dozens of people and the duration of the lay-offs varies, depending of the workload, from some weeks to longer periods of time. In future the amount of people and the duration of the lay-offs will vary according to the work situation. The lay-offs will begin in January 2009.

Metso (www.metso.com) is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. The company has more than 28,000 employees in more than 50 countries.