Fiat quits Italian business group over labour reform deal

MILAN Oct 3 (Reuters) - Italy's biggest carmaker Fiat and its sister company Fiat Industrial will quit the country's leading business association on Jan. 1, 2012, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said in a letter to Confindustria released on Monday.

The move comes after a groundbreaking workforce flexibility deal struck by the auto giant last year was the subject of legal challenges by a union and national legislation extending the deal to other companies met resistance.

"Fiat, which is engaged in the creation of a major international group ... cannot afford to operate in Italy in an environment of uncertainty that is so incongruous with the conditions that exist elsewhere in the industrialised world," the letter addressed to Confindustria leader Emma Marceglia said. (Writing by Michel Rose)