Fiat Aims to Fully Staff Italian Plants by 2016

CEO Sergio Marchionne says Fiat SpA intends to return all its hourly employees in Italy to work within three to four years.

In a speech in Florence, Marchionne tells employer federation Confindustria that the company will have updated its facilities by then to make new models for Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Maserati.

Those brands are central to Fiat's strategy of fully utilizing its domestic capacity by making Italy an export base for premium-priced vehicles.

By 2016, the company also expects reviving vehicle demand in Europe to allow it boost output and thus recall idled workers.

Marchionne reiterates that Fiat won't close any of its five Italian assembly plant, even though the "most rational choice" would be to shutter one or two of them. He urges Italy to adopt a "serious agenda of reforms" to lift the country's economy out of recession.