Metalworkers at Brazil's Embraer, the world's third-largest commercial planemaker, started a 24-hour strike on Thursday to demand a more than 17 percent salary increase.

The company said in a statement it did not expect that the partial adherence to industrial action by workers would affect the production timeline of its planes.

Union leaders at the planemaker's Sao Jose dos Campos factory in Sao Paulo state said the metalworkers were striking for the first time in at least 10 years to demand a shorter work week and a 9.75 percent wage hike over a particular measure of inflation.

Unemployment in Brazil is holding around 6 percent, near record lows, giving labor unions more leverage in wage talks and driving up salaries faster than inflation, which has accelerated to a six-year high.

Shares of the company closed down 5 percent on Thursday, in line with a 4.8 percent plunge on the broader Bovespa stock index markets.