Madras court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plant’s social distancing

Cennai — An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed.              

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras high court in May seeking to halt operations, saying that social distancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives.

The call for an inspection from the Madras high court follows a review of Ford, Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu’s directorate of industrial safety and health (DISH) last week, which said the nature of work at assembly lines poses “challenges in maintaining social distancing”.

Nissan, which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai, said it was working with stakeholders and co-ordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution.

“We are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2,” Nissan told Reuters.

The guidelines apply to all carmakers including Ford and Hyundai. However, only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other vehicle manufacturers have not raised objections, the court said.

The DISH review last week also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated, one in seven workers had contracted the virus, and 21 had died. Workers at the three plants accounted for more than 4% of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located, according to the report dated June 18.

Still, Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global carmakers in and around the capital city Chennai to operate at 100% capacity, citing a decline in cases.

New cases in the state have fallen from more than 30,000 a day in May to about 7,000 but still account for one-ninth of all cases in India.

The DISH report showed that the output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of prelockdown levels, and average attendance as on June 17 was about 90%.

Renault-Nissan on Tuesday sought to discontinue the practice of deploying an empty slot on the conveyor belt — a change that would help the carmaker increase production — as it was found to be ineffective in maintaining social distancing.

“I respectfully submit that this would be identical to the business operations adopted in all other similar car manufacturers like Hyundai and Ford,” Renault-Nissan said in a court filing reviewed by Reuters.

Production at the Renault-Nissan plant was nearly three-fifths of prelockdown levels on June 17, when DISH conducted the review.

Renault-Nissan workers have been pushing for an empty slot for every slot on the conveyor belt with a car, and for a reduction in conveyor belt speed, saying it hindered maintenance of social distancing.

“The nonavailability of sufficient time in some stations leads to the carry-over of the unfinished job to the next station and causes overlapping,” the union said in its court filing, citing the DISH report.

Reuters