Fiat continues labour shake-up
New company for Naples plant will be outside Confindustria
29 July, 16:53
(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Fiat on Thursday continued its drive
to revamp relations with its Italian employees, a process which
could revolutionise the country's industrial relations,
announcing a new subsidiary will not be part of industrial
employers' association Confindustria.The move regards a company the carmaker has set up to manage its Pomigliano d'Arco plant near Naples, where Panda cars will be produced after a landmark flexible-working procedures deal was agreed with the factory's workers.
By not being part of Confindustria, the company - Fabbrica Italia Pomigliano - will be free of the obligation to offer its workers contracts negotiated nationally with trade unions by engineering sector association Federmeccanica.
The move comes after Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said the whole company was considering leaving Confindustria to be able to dump Italy's traditional national labour-contract bargaining system.
Union sources said Thursday Fiat had revealed it intends to put any plans to leave Confindustria on hold for two months.
The government called on it not to take this option Thursday.
''Fiat should not stop being a member of Confindustria and it should not seek roads outside (standard) industrial relations,'' Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi said.
Fiat has been playing hardball with Italian workers and unions recently as it seeks to boost productivity and cut strikes and absenteeism.
On Wednesday Marchionne issued an ultimatum, saying unions must accept change is needed to survive in today's competitive markets for it to go ahead with Fabbrica Italia, a plan agreed last year to boost production in Italy.
''We must have guarantees that the plants can function,'' Marchionne told a meeting of union leaders and government representatives.
''If the project is just a pretext to leave things as they are, it's right that everyone assumes responsibility for their actions in the knowledge that Fabbrica Italia cannot go ahead and the plans and investments will have to be downsized.
''At this point we want a yes or a no. Yes means modernising the Italian industrial system. ''No means leaving things as they are, accepting that the industrial system will continue to be inefficient and inadequate for making profits and, therefore, for keeping or increasing jobs''.
Last week Marchionne said Fabbrica Italia will be slowed following tensions with the FIOM union after it opposed its proposed deal for Pomigliano.
FIOM, which is linked to the nation's biggest union CGIL, said the accord infringes on workers' right to strike and accused Fiat of bullying employees.
The plan is going ahead anyway after other unions backed it, as did 62% of workers there in a vote. Fabbrica Italia Pomigliano will gradually start hiring the plant's 5,200 workers in September, replacing the main Fiat group as their employer.
