Managers at the Saint-Gobain Cristalera Avils plant will reallocate all the employees affected by the fire in the float furnace to other departments in order to avoid lay-offs. The commitment was made…
Managers at the Saint-Gobain Cristalera Avils plant will reallocate all the employees affected by the fire in the float furnace to other departments in order to avoid lay-offs. The commitment was made to worker“s representatives during a meeting to inform them of the damage to the float furnace. Agustn Dorronsoro, director general of Glass Ibrica told the media that temporary lay-offs were the “last resort” and that the company would make all efforts to avoid going down this route. The willingness of the company was well-received by the works committee. “The decision to rebuild the furnace is a vote of confidence in the workers at Avils. All the committee is satisfied by this attitude”, said the works committee president, Csar Fernndez, on 13 March 2007. The Comisiones Obreras union representative assured that the company had sufficient resources to the deal with the situation without the need for temporary lay-offs. Mr. Fernndez said: “all the company technicians are at work planning the rebuilding of the furnace. There is still no timescale and it will take a couple of weeks before there is one. But the company is confident that the timescale will be as short as possible”. Csar Fernndez pointed out that the site of the accident was impossibile to inspect and that it was complicated to obtain the parts required. Agustn Dorronsoro also praised the workforce saying, “the highest values of the workers come out now”. Managers committed themselves to keeping the works committee informed on the rebuilding work. The company said that safety systems had worked properly and only one worker had received minor burns. Management also said the environmental impact of the accident was zero; all the water used for refrigeration which did not evaporate was taken away for treatment.