Paris (AFP)
The activity resumed Tuesday in the only French factory of the Japanese manufacturer Toyota but the production will be drastically reduced, confirmed the owner of the site, close to Valenciennes (59), without saying to what point the employees present were voluntary.
"(It's) the resumption of work, of course, today, but not yet the resumption of production," said Luciano Biondo, president of the Onnaing factory. "We hope to make cars on Thursday."
The group had announced in mid-April the resumption of activity on Tuesday on this site, the only one it has in France, while all the car manufacturers interrupted their production in March faced with the health crisis of Covid-19.
For now, Toyota plans a drastically reduced production, Mr. Biondo plans to manufacture on its site a few hundred cars per week against more than a thousand per day in normal times.
"Before that, we will start to adapt the work areas, the workstations to ensure that the sanitary measures are respected," said the factory owner. The employees present will have hydroalcoholic gel available, they will all be given a mask and their temperature will be systematically taken.
Asked about the voluntary nature of the employees' presence, Mr. Biondo refrained from confirming it, rather ensuring that they were "available". "These are the people who have no health constraints (or) personal constraints with children, so that is to say 85% of the employees," he explained.
"Today, we welcome the least reticent or in any case the least worried about the coronavirus", however specified Mr. Biondo, the idea being "to restore confidence from the least worried to the most worried".
A union, the CGT, spoke out against the takeover, speaking of a "risk to employees and the whole population", but others, like the CFDT, support the decision which was adopted at the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) of the site.
© 2020 AFP