BELGRADE, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Workers of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia (FCAS) on Tuesday ended a month-long strike after management of the company made an agreement with the workers' union in negotiations mediated by the government.
The agreement between the management of FCAS and the Independent Union of employees of FCAS was signed by their representatives in the building of the Serbian government at the presence of the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and government members.
The government said in a press release that the agreement will be valid for three years, and it foresees the salaries to be harmonized each February with the official inflation projected by the National Bank of Serbia.
In 2017 salaries will be thus increased by 2.2 percent, while in 2018 they will be increased by 4.5 percent.
Problems in FCAS, subsidiary of the Italian car giant Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, started when the management last year decided to fire around one third of workers, but, according to the union, maintained the same level of production which led to overwork.
Around 90 percent of workers supported the strike which started on June 27, asking for better working conditions and higher income.
After the signing, Brnabic said that the government had to intervene in order to ensure that the deal is reached, otherwise, production in a company which employs more than 2,500 people would stop completely and this would reflect on the gross domestic product (GDP), export and cooperators of FCAS.
Fiat purchased 67 percent share of the Serbian factory Zastava Automobiles in 2008, while Serbian government retained 33 percent.
The Italian company has since invested around 1 billion euros in its infrastructure, buildings, production and technology.
The factory in the city of Kragujevac currently manufactures the Fiat 500L model that sells in more than 100 countries.
