#ReStart: Biggest company in Romania plans to fully resume operations at the beginning of May

Car producer Automobile Dacia, the biggest company in Romania by turnover, plans to resume the operations at its plant in Mioveni, near Pitesti, in two stages, on April 21 and May 4, the company’s management announced in a press release on Thursday, April 9.

The company will restart production at its mechanic and chassis plant on April 21 (the week after Easter) with 250 employees who volunteer for this. The presage department will also resume operations on the same day, with 190 employees.

Then, on May 4, the Dacia car plant will resume full operations. The company has notified its employees that new rules have been established in the factory to avoid contamination with the new coronavirus.

Automobile Dacia, which is part of French group Renault, suspended its operations on March 19, a few days after Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis decreed the state of emergency in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the period when the operations have been suspended, employees have received 85% of their base wages, according to their work contracts.

The other car producer in Romania, the Ford plant in Craiova, also stopped operations on March 19 and is expected to also resume production at the beginning of May, according to Ziarul Financiar.

With car makers throughout Europe suspending their operations, the automotive components producers in Romania (both large and small) have also halted their production, sending their employees into technical unemployment.

Over one million work contracts are currently suspended in Romania, amid the COVID-19 restrictions, and the state covers the technical unemployment costs for most of them.

(Photo source: the company's website)