. If in the industry they aspired to gradually recover normality with the entry of the new course, nothing is further from reality: the car company is missing fifty parts, for which it has been forced to present a new temporary regulation file for employment (ERTE) that will affect up to 10,310 people.
The organization led by Wayne Griffiths and the unions met this Friday to negotiate the scope of the temporary layoff plan. The firm already had an ERTE in force until June and, after suspending it in the summer -with the August holidays in between- it will apply a new one until December 23, the last working day at the Martorell factory (Barcelona). ).
The adjustment is proposed both for the main plant and for the satellite center in Zona Franca (Barcelona). It will affect a maximum of 10,310 people: 8,958 in Martorell and another 1,352 in the Catalan capital. That does not imply that everyone is impacted at the same time. Unions and company are expected to reach an agreement next week, after meeting on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Volkswagen AG subsidiary also proposed canceling the September weekends that were planned as extraordinary production days, and not enabling the October weekends either.
Less Seat León and Cupra Formentor
Seat – like most of the sector – has been dragging the lack of semiconductors for months, so production has been irregular since the end of 2020. The company lacks up to 53 parts necessary to assemble its vehicles, so it has been seen to adapt its operation so as not to create a bottleneck. Thus, the night shift of line 2, which assembles the Seat León and the Cupra Formentor, will be suspended.
The drop in activity will be partially mitigated with half a shift more on line 3, which manufactures the Audi A1. In addition, since there are several days off pending distribution, the impact on the workforce will not be as great as the 850 jobs it occupies.
As explained by the works council in a statement, Seat will run out of space to store its half-manufactured cars in October if it maintains the rate of production. Currently, 26,000 vehicles sleep in the Martorell field, 50% of its capacity.
In recent weeks, the war in Ukraine as well as the conflict in Taiwan and the lockdowns in China due to the coronavirus have once again shaken the semiconductor industry when it seemed that it was returning to normal.