NTN Driveshaft has announced that it will offer employees five fully paid “sick days” during the company’s temporary shutdown of production.
The local manufacturer, which employs around 1,500 people, had previously announced that it would temporarily halt production at the end of second shift on Tuesday because “all of our customers have announced they will stop production” due to the spread of COVID-19.
“We have elevated the pay to our employees so we’re awarding what we call occasional absences or sick days that are paid that they can use at their discretion,” said Barry Parkhurst, company vice president and chief financial officer. “Basically, they’re getting five days of paid time. We’re not forcing them to use that.”
The five days would be paid at employees’ regular pay rate, whether they are salary or hourly employees, Parkhurst said.
Currently, there is no estimated timetable for when company officials expect to restart production, as it will depend on when their customers resume production, Parkhurst said.
“Each one of them might have a different start-up period, which will affect how we start back up and when we start back up,” Parkhurst said in a previous interview.
