MILAN (Reuters) - Italian carmaker Fiat said 5,000 office workers at its Mirafiori factory will be laid off for three days in June and three days in July.
Car sales in Italy fell 20 percent in the first three months of the year, and are in their fifth year of decline.
"When we sell less, we produce less, and therefore our office staff also works less as a consequence," a spokesman said on Friday.
Manufacturing workers at Mirafiori in Turin, where FIAT (F.IT)has its executive headquarters, have already been laid off temporarily.
"If the top of the company is slowing down, it is a bad sign," said Edi Lazzi, from the Fiom trade union which represents some workers at Mirafiori.
(Reporting by Jennifer Clark and Alberto Sisto; Editing by Dan Lalor)
