Metalworkers from Caoa Chery accept compensation and layoffs

The employees of Caoa Chery in Jacareí (SP) approved, this Friday (10), the automaker’s social compensation plan for those who are fired with the closing of the factory.

According to the Metalworkers Union of São José dos Campos e Região, the 489 workers who will be terminated from the plant will receive compensation from nine to 15 nominal wages, with a ceiling of R$5,000 per salary. The value will vary according to the length of service of each one. The shutdown will take place on the 1st of July.

“Caoa Chery also committed to extending the medical insurance, dental plan and food stamps for 12 months, starting from the date of dismissal,” the union said in a statement.

China’s Caoa Chery announced in early May that it will interrupt vehicle production at the Jacareí plant, its main facility in the country, to adapt the unit to the production of hybrid and electric cars. The modernization of the plant is expected to take place by 2025.

The factory’s management signed a commitment to give priority to current employees in hiring related to the new plant.

According to the union, the automaker informed that 100 workers will remain at the factory in the sales, after-sales, maintenance, quality and logistics sectors. Those who do not want to stay will be entitled to compensation.

The category says that it will not accept the closing of the factory and will demand attention from the federal, state and municipal governments for the commitment made by Caoa Chery.

“The company has benefited from tax incentives and public works, so it has to assume its responsibility towards the city and the workers. The agreement approved today does not mean the end of the war. We will continue together, organized, so that the factory returns to operation in Jacareí “, says the director of the Union Guirá Borba Guimarães, in the note.

Jacareí unit is the first outside China

Opened in 2014, the Chery factory in Jacareí was the automaker’s first outside China and produces the Tiggo 3x and Arrizo 6 Pro vehicles. The company has another factory, in Anápolis (GO), where Hyundai and Chery models are assembled.

Since March, employees have been on paid leave. On May 5, the automaker announced the closure of the plant and the dismissal of all workers on its production line and 50% of the employees in the administrative sector.

The MPT-SP (Ministry of Labor of São Paulo) even proposed to the automaker Caoa Chery the payment of up to 20 individual compensation salaries to reduce the social impact caused by layoffs. But, during the hearing, representatives of the automaker said that the layoff concession comes up against a “legal impediment”, and that accepting the proposal would represent a “fraud to the government”.

By law, the layoff is used in times of economic crisis. The workers are placed at home, but they need to take training courses. The government pays part of the salaries, and the company pays another part.

At the end of May, the Labor Court granted an injunction suspending the layoffs. The judge argued that, unlike individual dismissals, “collective dismissals would give rise to the prior need for collective bargaining, considering the social impact they cause”.

This Wednesday (8), the Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided, when judging a case involving Embraer, that it is mandatory that there is a negotiation with unions before the mass dismissal of workers.

In the 37 days until this Friday’s agreement, the category came to occupy the company’s factory and protest in front of the Chinese Consulate, in São Paulo.