Pressure is continuing to
mount on Fiat to respect an order to take back three
sacked workers in what is becoming a test case for
Italian industrial relations, reports news agency
ANSA. Fiat has refused to let the men back on to
production lines at its Melfi plant after sacking them
last month for allegedly preventing non-striking workers
from doing their jobs, even though a labour court
overturned the dismissals two weeks ago.
On Tuesday Transport Minister Altero Matteoli called on
the carmaker to let the men go back to work, commenting
that: ''court sentences should be respected even when we
don't like them''. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano
also said Fiat should respect the judges' decision after
the men appealed to him to intervene, expressing
''profound sorrow'' at their plight. Pier Luigi Bersani,
the leader of the biggest centre-left opposition group
the Democratic Party (PD), added his voice to the calls
Wednesday, saying Fiat should show ''willingness and
good faith to find a solution'."
Fiat, which is appealing
against the rehire ruling, said the men could only be on
its premises if they stayed in a room away from the
production lines and limited their activities to union
business after they turned up for work on Monday. The
trio, whose salaries are being paid during the dispute,
refused, saying they wanted to ''earn our bread earn
like every family man does and not be paid for not
working''.
All three, Giovanni Barozzino, Antonio Lamorte and Marco
Pignatelli, are representatives of the FIOM union, which
has resisted Fiat's recent drive to revamp working
practices and labour relations in Italy in a bid to
boost productivity. They were fired after they allegedly
blocked a robot arm supplying production lines, forcing
1,750 Melfi workers to down tools. The incident came
during a strike by 50 workers against planned cutbacks
and longer hours.
Fiat denies union claims it has violated Italian labour
law, although FIOM lawyers have said they intend to
press criminal charges over the refusal to let the men
go back to their jobs. The carmaker has won support for
its tough stance in some quarters though, with Education
Minister Mariastella Gelmini giving her backing. ''(FIAT
CEO Sergio) Marchionne has taken a brave decision,''
Gelmini told Wednesday's Corriere della Sera. ''Rulings
should always be respected but so should companies.
''There are not just the rights of those three workers
to defend, but also of the workers who were forced to
stop because those three blocked that machine''.
Emma Marcegaglia, the chief of Italy's industrial
employers' association Confindustria, said she too
thought Fiat had acted in compliance with the law, while
stressing that the real question was the need ''to
radically change industrial relations'' in Italy. The
company, which confirmed Wednesday that the whole Melfi
plant will be laid off from September 22 to October 1
due to falling demand, had been on a crusade to do this
recently with an increasingly assertive stance with
workers and unions here.
It has said plans to increase production in Italy will
be shelved unless it is accepted that there is a need to
boost productivity and reduce strikes and absenteeism
with flexible working procedures like those recently
adopted in a controversial plan for the Pomigliano
d'Arco plant near Naples. FIOM opposed the Pomigliano
accord, saying that, among other things, it infringes on
workers' right to strike.
Reports & photo courtesy of ANSA
