For Seat, the semiconductor crisis is still going long and so is the normalization of productive activity. The company proposed yesterday to the works council a three-month extension, until the end of next March, of the employment regulation file (ERTE), which affects the 10,300 employees related to production, according to union sources. The proposal, still in the negotiation phase, would mean maintaining the current conditions, with a salary supplement paid by the company.
The same union sources did not rule out that the ERTE should be extended beyond March, in view of how the chips are being distributed within the Volkswagen group, favoring the brands with the highest margin and price and penalizing those with the cheapest cars such as it’s Seat. The company declined to comment yesterday.
In the absence of the completion of the talks, it is expected that the company will supplement unemployment benefits up to 93.3% of salary and that the measure will not have an impact on extra pay or vacations for those affected. It would apply to a maximum of 10,300 employees at the Martorell plants and the Barcelona Free Trade Zone.
The current ERTE came into force on September 16 and was due to end on the 24th. It has allowed production to be reduced depending on the available parts and the Martorell plant has been paralyzed for several days.
The company announced at the beginning of December that it plans to end the year with a manufacturing volume of 366,000 vehicles in Martorell, almost 27% less than in 2019, the year before the pandemic. A fall that has been able to be compensated for the moment without traumatic cuts in the workforce thanks to the flexibility that measures such as ERTE allow. And the greater focus on Cupra sales has made it possible to improve income and also results.
Until September, the company chaired by Wayne Griffiths registered losses of 10 million euros, far from the 159 million lost in the same period last year. The company also qualifies that discounting the extraordinary provision to cover 1,300 casualties (retirements) until 2026, the operating result would already be positive, of 234 million until September. And the forecast is to close the year positively, according to Griffiths. In terms of income, in the first nine months they have increased by 7.7%, up to 7,820 million.
