10 Apr 2009

Fiat bosses held by Belgian workers in jobs row

3:04 pm on 10 April 2009

Fiat staff in Brussels closeted local managers inside their office for several hours in another apparent "boss-napping" linked to worker anger over job cuts in Europe.

The dispute centred on failed negotiations over 24 planned redundancies at a sales and repair office in the Schaerbeek suburb.

The three managers walked free after being holed up in their office throughout the afternoon with a group of workers outside the door, a witness told Reuters.

"Twenty-four of us have been told our jobs will go, without compensation, without pension arrangements," Jean-Pierre Timmermans, a 51-year-old employee in the reception area told Reuters shortly before the managers left.

"All we want is dialogue and we have had no dialogue," said Mr Timmermans, who said he had worked in the company for 28 years.

In France, the last boss-napping ended on Wednesday when workers released four managers they held overnight when talks came to a head over the potential closure of an adhesive tape factory run by Britain's Scapa Group in southern France.