Fiat looks to boost productivity

POMIGILANO D'ARCO, Italy, July 23 (UPI) -- Fiat, Italy's largest automaker, says it is pushing a stricter work ethic to keep the company competitive in an increasingly tough world market .

Sergio Marchionne, Fiat's chief executive who engineered a merger with Michigan's Chrysler, wants workers at auto plants in Italy to become more devoted to their jobs, work longer hours and reduce absenteeism, The New York Times reports.

"He wants to impose American-style standards," a worker at a Fiat factory that makes Alfa Romeos near Naples said. "But too much work is going to kill our workers."

The Times says success of Marchionne's program will depend on a change in the mindset of many workers. The plant in Pomigilano D'Arco is operating at just 32 percent of capacity and is Fiat's lowest-producing plant.

Production workers told the newspaper that some workers take sick days to work a second job or skip work with a doctor's note when the town's soccer team plays a game.

Still, 63 percent of union employees voted in June to accept a plan shortening lunch breaks, restricting the right to strike and penalizing workers that abuse sick days.