A "small number" of white collar workers are back on the job in their offices at General Motors Technical Center in Warren.
The employees started trickling back last week, around the same time GM brought back some 12,000 hourly workers to many of its North American factories.
GM had shuttered its plants in North America in mid-March amid the coronavirus pandemic. Right before doing that, it had told salaried workers to work remotely if their job allowed them to do so.
More: Thousands of GM UAW members told to stay home, pickup production stalled
“A small number of employees have returned to work at the Tech Center campus, following the safety guidelines we have communicated,” GM spokesman Jim Cain told the Free Press on Tuesday. “We will have employees returning to other sites in phases based on a number of factors, with health and safety the No. 1 consideration.”
Cain said GM is not ready to publicly discuss details of the plan to bring back salaried workers to their jobs at GM's world headquarters in the Renaissance Center in Detroit, the Technical Center and GM's Proving Grounds in Milford. GM has 48,000 employees in the United States, of whom about 5,000 work in the RenCen, Cain said. He said 20,000 work at the Tech Center.
But two people familiar with the plan told the Free Press it is being rolled out in four phases. The people asked to not be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media about the plan.
- Phase one started May 18. It includes employees who have to be on-site to do their jobs. Those employees can work in the office for a limited amount of hours each week.
- Phase two allows employees who are more effective by coming into the office, to start coming in again for a limited time each week. GM has not committed to a date to launch phase two.
- Phase three applies to those workers who can do their job remotely. They will be the last to return to the office. Again, no given date.
- Phase four is the resumption of normal operations, the date to be determined.
GM has done extensive work to its factories to apply safety measures to protect workers there. It included remodeling some work stations to allow for social distancing. GM has also erected partitions between some job stations to protect workers.
GM has implemented several other safety protocols such as body temperature screening when workers enter a plant, requiring face masks and other protective gear, social distancing at break areas, hand sanitizer and cleaning procedures.
The safety protocols are outlined in GM’s safety playbook. Many of those same protocols will exist for its salaried workforce, the people said.
Likewise, there will be some office reconfiguration or social distancing enforcement for white-collar workers.
The playbook notes: “We will provide recommended workstation seating patterns to help encourage physical distancing. Traditional cubicles already provide a six-foot (two meter) distance between coworkers, while compressed cubicles should be selected by staggering to maintain six feet of distance between coworkers.”
In terms of conference rooms and other meeting spaces, the playbook tells employees to stagger seating, “so you’re not face-to-face and wipe down all areas before and after use.”
Ford Motor Co. has said it plans to start calling back salaried workers in late June or early July in the U.S. Ford will offer more specifics on its return plans next week, a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles did not have an immediate comment on the company's plans.
In March, GM briefly shut down its engineering building at its Technical Center after an employee tested positive for coronavirus. It sent workers home while it deep cleaned the building before allowing those workers who had to be there to return.
More: GM employee tests positive for coronavirus, building at Tech Center in Warren closes
More: Worker at GM Tech Center in Warren dies of coronavirus
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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