Sergio Marchionne defended Fiat from flak over its treatment of three sacked workers it has been ordered to rehire Thursday and counterattacked by calling for elements in Italy to dump their alleged class-war mentality. The carmaker has been on a drive of late to get Italian unions and workers to accept that big changes are needed in labour practices and relations to keep factories in its homeland economically viable. But Marchionne said he saw little appetite to step up to this challenge. ”In Italy we are afraid of change,” he said in a speech at a conference in Rimini. ”We are not in the 1960s any more,” he added, stressing that it was necessary to stop seeing the world as a ”fight between capital and labour, owners and workers. ”While we still have the old outlooks weighing us down, there’ll never be space for new horizons”. He also called for a ”social pact, a common effort to share sacrifices and commitments and give the country the chance to move forward”. The speech came in the middle of a big row over Fiat’s refusal to let three men it fired last month for allegedly preventing non-striking workers doing their jobs return to production lines after a labour court overturned the dismissals. Fiat, which is appealing against the rehire ruling, said the men had to stay in a room away from the production lines at its southern plant at Melfi and limit their activities to union business. The men, who are being paid during the dispute, rejected this condition and Fiat came under fire from many quarters, including Transport Minister Altero Matteoli. But Marchionne insisted that the company has played by the rules with the trio, who allegedly blocked a robot arm supplying production lines during a strike by some workers against planned cutbacks and longer hours, forcing 1,750 others to down tools. ”Fiat has respected the law,” he said. ”(But) it’s unacceptable to tolerate or defend certain acts, which in some cases go as far as sabotage”. The three men involved, Giovanni Barozzino, Antonio Lamorte and Marco Pignatelli, are representatives of the FIOM union, which has resisted Fiat’s campaign to revamp working practices in Italy to boost productivity. ”Marchionne has not taken on board the head of state’s message,” Lamorte said after the speech, referring to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano statement this week expressing ”profound sorrow” about the affair. The labour judge that ordered Fiat to rehire the men on Thursday called the parties to a new hearing on September 21.