Seat is carrying out PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests on its 15,000 employees to allow a limited return to work. Seat is the first company in Spain to do this testing.
Starting on Monday, more than 3,000 PCR tests are being carried out every week for production employees at Seat Martorell, Seat Barcelona, Seat Components and CROS (Seat Spare Parts Centre), as well as non-production employees. This testing will be extended to other Volkswagen Group companies in Spain over the following weeks.
Employees must enter and be tested at an on-site clinic at each location before starting work.
The laboratories, built under the supervision of Dr Bonaventura Clotet, director of IrsiCaixa and member of Seat’s Scientific Committee, have been accredited by the Ministry of Health. The Catalan Government will monitor the tests results as Seat’s work population is a good representation of Catalan society.
Seat President and Vice-president for Finance and IT Carsten Isensee, said “Now that the most difficult phase of COVID-19 has been overcome, we face the first stage of returning to normal without letting our guard down. It is essential to apply strict health and safety measures to ensure that the return to work takes place in complete safety. With Seat’s decision to invest in the PCR test programme, we are also helping the health authorities to understand the extent of the pandemic.”
Dr Clotet emphasised that “Testing all employees is the best way to minimise the spread of the virus. Furthermore, from an epidemiological point of view, it is a great opportunity to enrich the scientific knowledge we have of COVID-19, as the Seat workforce is a large, representative sample of society. Its results, which are anonymous and confidential, will be the basis of a scientific study within the scope of the Seat Healthy Company Scientific Committee.”
During the weeks of 27 April and 4 May, one production shift will return to work at each of the three lines at Martorell where the Seat Ibiza, Arona, Leon and Audi A1 are manufactured.
The company will produce around 325 cars a day during these first two weeks. From the 11 May, two production shifts will be working on each of the lines, enabling the manufacture of around 650 cars a day. Seat expects to return to a full production rate from June onwards.
