Fiat
hit the TV news across Europe at the end of last week as
three executives were briefly held hostage at a Fiat, Alfa
Romeo and Lancia dealership near Brussels by angry staff
that were at the time trying to renegotiate job cuts. Dubbed
"bossnapping" by the media it is the latest incident where
staff facing redundancy due to the downturn caused by the
global financial crisis have taken management hostage. There
have been several cases in the last week over the border in
France.
According to media reports the Italian executive responsible
for human resources and two Belgian managers were locked up
at the Italian Automotive Centre (IAC) dealership in
Schaerbeek near the capital Brussels. They were negotiating
with union representatives at the time over job cuts.
According to media reports tensions were raised as 24 of the
90 staff were in danger of losing their positions, which had
been announced by the IAC in December. The three managers
were locked in an office for seven hours before leaving the
building without comment.
Fiat
swiftly responded to the turn of events by issuing a
statement in Turin on Friday. "Fiat wishes to emphasise that
yesterday’s events in Brussels were a violation of
acceptable norms of conduct and obstructed the negotiations
with the trade unions," the statement read. "The Group will
not tolerate such behaviour and reserves the right to take
any legal action necessary for the protection of its
representatives. Respect of the basic rules which apply to
such negotiations is vital to ensuring maintenance of the
proper relationship between company, unions and employees.
Fiat will not accept any disregard of those rules. In
future, Fiat will not maintain relationships with any trade
union organisation that engages in similar forms of
protest."
