Kia Motors Slovakia resumed its normal two-shift operation on Monday, March 2, at its Teplička nad Vahom production facility in the Žilina region, company spokesman Dušan Dvořák told the TASR newswire on that same day.
Employees will work for six hours on both the morning and afternoon shifts, receiving 60 percent of their average salaries for the two remaining hours of each shift. Administrative staff, working in one shift, will have a regular eight-hour working day. This schedule is will remain in place for one month.
According to Dvořák, production volumes are directly linked to the number of orders from the whole of Europe, and are planned out just one month in advance.
“At present, we've received a number of orders that enables us to set two-shift production,” said Dvorak, adding that production is fully flexible and that the company will be monitoring market developments.
Kia switched from two shifts to a one-shift schedule on February 16 due to the economic crisis and a drop in sales. Working hours had also been adjusted at the beginning of February. Originally, the company wanted to reduce the number of working hours on January 12, but gas supplies were cut off on January 8, and the company then totally suspended production until January 19.
Kia Motors Slovakia is the South Korean company's first European facility and employs approximately 2,700 people. The company currently produces three versions of the Kia cee'd model.
“We plan to start manufacturing a redesigned model of the Kia cee'd. We should launch tests of a new model in the second half of this year and full production is set to be launched in 2010,” said Dvořák. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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