Piaggio Group Chairman and CEO Roberto Colaninno: “the resumption of work is the basic condition for a gradual return to normality. We have to work together with protection of the health and safety of all our employees as our top priority”
Pontedera, 30 April 2020 – Preparations continue for the re-opening of the Piaggio Group factories in Italy planned for Monday 4 May. The final meeting between the Group and the unions of the Italian factories was held today, to illustrate the procedures and measures that have been introduced to guarantee maximum health and safety for workers.
In accordance with the memoranda of understanding signed in the last few days, the measures are based on the decrees issued by the Italian government to block the spread of Covid-19, supplemented with the additional health precautions already introduced by the Piaggio Group to ensure employee safety.
During the company's meeting with the unions, Piaggio Group Chairman and CEO Roberto Colaninno said: “the whole world is having to cope with an extremely serious and complex situation caused by the Covid-19 virus: we have been suspended for long weeks and fortunately the conditions are now emerging for us to move into a new phase. One of the key elements is the return to work, not only to provide for our economic well-being, but also as the hope that in future this situation can be beaten, and it is the basic condition for a gradual return to normality.
Being able to go back to work next Monday is the most natural and obvious starting point for us to beat this terrible virus together, and working together is the only way we can fight it.
We all have responsibilities: we have introduced important preventive health measures inside the factories of the Piaggio Group but it is vital that everyone complies with the new rules of conduct. Our future will also be affected by the way we behave in and outside our factories. The recovery is necessary for us all, with the spirit that has to be present in a community defending itself against an invisible enemy. We have to work together, compare notes, discuss the situation in the committees set up with protection of the health and safety of all our employees as our top priority, and look to the future by re-gaining control of our lives.”
In preparation for the re-opening, the Piaggio Group has carried out major sanitisation operations in all its workplaces. A daily cleaning plan for workstations and work tools has been drawn up, to be carried out at the end of the day and the end of each shift, and additional sanitisation operations will be performed on a weekly basis.
Work has been organised to take account of both health and production requirements. Special solutions have been introduced to ensure social distancing of at least 1 metre during working hours, at factory entrances and exits, in canteens and in common areas.
Measurement of workers’ body temperature will continue at the entrances to the factories, a procedure outsourced to specialist firms, and use of thermal scanners will be gradually introduced.
The Group's production lines have been re-organised to ensure interpersonal distancing among workers. As further assistance, during each shift an employee will pass down the lines with refreshments.
Throughout the day, the presence of an occupational doctor will be guaranteed, for the benefit of every worker.
In the canteens, to reduce the simultaneous presence of workers, flows and rotas have been drawn up, canteen space has been re-organised and plexiglass partitions have been set up on the tables. Disposable accessories will be used.
All factory and office workers will be issued at regular intervals with a special personal protection equipment kit, including masks, gloves and, where necessary, goggles, and sanitising gel dispensers have been installed.
Shifts will end earlier, to enable workers to take the necessary precautions in the locker rooms and get ready to go home.
Compatibly with technical and organisational needs, use of smart working is planned for specific activities and for individuals affected by particular pathologies, based on a medical assessment.
Piaggio will guarantee full circulation to all workers of an information package illustrating the rules and measures to be applied on company premises, including measures in the canteens, procedures for managing meetings, behaviour guidelines for visitors and suppliers, and information from medical professionals on the management of possible Covid-19 symptoms and preventive action to be taken in an emergency..
Suppliers and personnel of external firms will also be asked to follow the rules of the memoranda, and to provide self-certification guaranteeing compliance.
The new measures will be monitored by the committee formed as indicated in the agreement signed by the Italian Government and worker representatives on 14 March 2020.
The meetings were held by the Piaggio Group with the Piaggio unions (Pontedera - Pisa), the Aprilia unions (Noale and Scorzè - Venice) and the Moto Guzzi unions (Mandello del Lario – Lecco).