REYKJAVIK (AFP) - More than 160 Icelandair mechanics returned to work Tuesday after a day's strike following a parliament vote banning them from taking industrial action until the end of the year.

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"It is simply horrible and frightful that such an act has been committed in a democratic country," Gudjon Valdimarsson, who heads Iceland's Air Mechanic Association, told AFP.

The 164 Icelandair mechanics had walked off the job at 0100 GMT Monday to protest low salaries, but late in the afternoon, parliament voted to block air mechanics from striking until November 30 year to avoid huge financial losses.

According to the RUV public broadcaster, 38 of the Icelandic parliament's 63 members voted in favour of the ban, while two voted against and eight abstained. The ban went into effect at 1700 GMT Monday.

According to Valdimarsson, the strike had not affected any other airlines besides Icelandair and therefore did not have a major economic impact.

"I consider this act as a warning to all the working class in this country in the terrible economic situation we are in," he said.

After 15 years of service, Icelandic airline mechanics make just 398,000 kronur (2,305 euros, 3,120 dollars) a month, he said.

Iceland is still struggling to scramble out of a deep economic crisis that began in October 2008 when its once-booming financial sector ground to a halt and its major banks collapsed after wild borrowing to fund aggressive investments abroad.

At the height of the crisis, the value of the Icelandic krona crumbled and many Icelanders lost their savings and jobs.