Due to the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government to fight the resumption of the pandemic, the Shanghai Gigafactory will reopen under certain drastic conditions… especially for the workers. Indeed, they will have to sleep, eat and relax on site after their 12-hour working day.
Since the end of March, the city of Shanghai has experienced a rebound in the Covid-19 epidemic. Without surprise, the Chinese health authorities have decided to apply their Zero Covid policyordering the total containment of the population and the closure of many factories/businesses.
For the past few days, however, the restrictions have begun to ease and Tesla has been authorized to reopen the doors of the Gigafactory in Shanghai. Nevertheless, one of the main factories of the manufacturer will be able to resume its activity under certain drastic conditions. According to internal notes relayed by our colleagues from the Bloomberg site, the production site will reopen its doors “in closed circuit”. In other words, no one goes in or out.
Also read: Tesla – Model Y dominates electric car sales right after launch
Shanghai Gigafactory employees will have to live in the factory
Employees will have to work and live in the factory until further notice. The first “team” of workers entered at the beginning of the week and should remain within the walls of the factory until May 1, when another team will come to replace it. According to Tesla’s memo, each worker will be provided with a sleeping bag and mattress, with specific areas for sleeping, showering, eating and relaxing. In addition, each employee will receive three free meals and a daily allowance of 400 yuan, or €57.
Note that only workers who have received two doses of vaccine have been authorized to return to work and they will have to undergo screening tests during the first three days of recovery. To complete the picture, Tesla also takes the opportunity to announce an increase in working time to hope for the accumulated delay in the production of 40,000 cars, suspended since the plant closed on March 28. In other words, in addition to being stuck in the Gigafactory, workers will have to work 12 hours a dayfor six days in a row.
As a reminder, Elon Musk recently announced the opening of the new Gigafactory in Berlin. The delivery of the first Model Y manufactured within the site has already begun and the brand has also taken the opportunity to reveal behind the scenes of the production of its SUV. Via a video, users were able to discover that Model Ys are made by an army of robots.
Source : Bloomberg
