Fall in car demand forces Fiat to lay off 700 workers

Fiat Auto Poland has confirmed it is planning a further round of lay-offs, this time involving 700 workers at its plant in Tychy. In a statement yeste rday the car-maker explained, "The main, indeed the only, reason for the re trenchment is the dramatic fall in demand for our products on the Polish ma rket." This is the second time this year the company has decided to cut its workforce. In the spring, 580 Fiat workers in Poland got their marching ord ers. According to the Fiat Auto Poland unions, the true number of those cur rently facing redundancy is much higher than the 700 announced, since the c ompany's subsidiaries, Sistema Poland, Power Train Poland and Delfo Poland, are also planning reductions in their workforces, bringing the total number to 1,300 or 1,400. The lay-offs at Fiat follow similar moves by Daewoo-FSO in Warsaw, where 1,300 workers have lost their jobs this year. (Rzeczpospol ita, p. B1) J.K.