Toyota Motor stated Wednesday it prepares to resume its North American auto plants on May 4, extending its existing shutdown by two additional weeks.
The automaker mentioned the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and fall in vehicle demand to extend the halt of production at all of its automobile and components plants located in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Toyota will not furlough its direct workers, but has asked its hourly plant workers to take two days out of the 10 day extension as paid time off or they can go with no pay if they don’t have accrued leave.
For the automaker’s 5,000 workers provided by outside agencies, Toyota is releasing those workers back to their firms. The automaker will continue to pay the benefits of those workers for now, and they may be eligible for unemployment.
Automakers are dealing with a dramatic drop in sales in the United States, the world’s second-largest automobile market, after some states prohibited dealers from selling new cars because of the “stay-at-home” orders being in place. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) on Monday extended its shutdown of U.S. and Canadian plants until May 4.
About 469,121 people in the US have been confirmed as being infected with the coronavirus. The virus has killed 16,676 people in the country.
