Stora Enso will record a €21m negative non-recurring item (NRI) in its fourth quarter operating profits following a court decision over the company’s non-payment of rewards to workers who participated in strikes.

The company said the new NRI related to performance-based rewards that were not paid due to illegal strikes in Finland in 2005-2009.

The Finnish Supreme Court gave a precedent ruling at the end of 2010 obliging Stora Enso to extend pay performance-based rewards to those employees who had taken part in illegal industrial strikes in May 2006.

“Stora Enso will follow the ruling and voluntarily pay all unpaid performance-based rewards from 2005-2009, including interest, on the same basis as that covered by the precedent,” the company said in a statement.

Stora Enso had earlier declared a fourth-quarter €223m positive NRI.