Fiat Chrysler has restarted limited production at its Atessa facility located in Italy, the automaker’s only open assembly plant, having stopped operations at most of its European factories, a spokesman stated on Tuesday.
The company stated on Monday that it was stopping production for two weeks at majority of its European plants to help to protect staff and adjust to a downturn in demand.
The Atessa plant had been shut down since last week as the company carried out deep sanitization and some reconfiguration of production lines to permit more space between employees.
“Operations have restarted with the number of workers declined by around 45%,” the FCA spokesman stated, adding that employees placed on temporary leave will get benefits from the ‘cassa integrazione’ wage-guarantee fund.
Located in the central Italian region of Abruzzo and operated by Sevel, a joint venture between the automaker and France’s PSA-Peugeot, the plant generally produces about 300,000 light commercial vehicles per year.
UILM union representative Gianluca Ficco stated the plant, which hired about 5,000 people, was running on Tuesday with approximately 60% of its staff.
“We are ascertaining day by day, in FCA and in all other firms, that the health measures decided by the government are fully met,” Ficco said. “Our aim is to combine security and jobs”.
The Italian government has agreed with companies and trade union leaders a range of measures to improve health controls in factories, offices and other workplaces that have been permitted to stay open during the country’s coronavirus lockdown.
However, trade unions have reported several strikes during recent days in the Italy, with worker representatives saying that implemented measures were not sufficient.
A source close to the matter stated that FCA does not plan more stoppages to Atessa operations.
