Big lay-offs in Italy next year

Press, 10 December 1981, Page 25

Big lay-offs in Italy next year

NZPA Rome Italy’s two leading car makers, Fiat and Alfa Romeo, have announced plans for big lay-offs next year to adjust output to falling markets. Alfa Romeo representatives said the State-owned company wants a state of crisis declared from January 4 so that about a third of its work force can receive State lay-off or short-time working subsidies.

The privately owned Fiat, which cut its workforce by 23,000 last year, said it wanted to put 60,000 car employees on State-sub-sidised lay-off for a week in January and another week in February, and 7000 workers at its Teksid special steel subsidiary for similar periods.

The chairman of Alfa Romeo, Ettore Massacesi, said after a week-end meeting of State sector managers, that he was seeking union cooperation to lay off 6600 workers for the whole of 1982 and put a further 7900 on short-time working.

Production will be cut by 74 days in Alfa’s Arese plant in Northern Italy and 95 days at its Pomigliano.plant in the south, reducing output by about 100,000 cars next year, to 180,000 from 280,000 this year, he said.

Fiat laid off more than 70,000 of its 130,000 car workers for various periods

in the final quarter of this year to prevent a build-up of excessive stocks. Alfa Romeo said last month it had about 10,000 unsold cars in stock.