On Sunday, Boeing Co announced it would extend the halt in production activities at its facilities in Washington State until further notice in the midst of the ongoing global health hazard.
On March 23, the biggest aircraft manufacturer in the United States said it would suspend production at its twin-aisle facility in Seattle as a temporary measure to help tackle the worsening pandemic. The company projected the production to restart early this week.
Last week, a stay-at-home order was issued by the state of Washington, valid until May 4, and that order could be extended. Boeing was an important company exempted from the order.
Boeing said volunteers at its Puget Sound sites who supported critical work would continue to report to their assigned shifts. The company is working on additional health and safety measures, including visual signals to facilitate physical distance measures, staggered shift times, and more frequent deep cleaning.
As for the extended suspension, affected staff will earn pay worth 10 days to compensate for the working days from the initially scheduled closure, a Boeing spokeswoman said.
If their remaining PTO days are running out, they will have to use "absence without pay" days, at which stage they will apply for unemployment insurance. The spokesperson said staff impacted would continue to receive medical benefits despite the shutdown.
Coronavirus and stringent measures to contain it have roiled demand for air travel, such as travel bans and stay-at-home orders. Airlines park hundreds of aircraft and cancel orders for new planes, predicting rough months ahead for aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and its European rival Airbus.
Boeing's decision comes as the state of Washington continues to record increasing numbers of cases of coronavirus, though at a slower pace than some other areas of the world.
Department of Health officials on Sunday reported another 393 cases and 28 COVID-19 deaths, taking the state total to 7,984 cases and 338 deaths. The majority of cases reside in King County, where 3,158 people became ill, and 208 died.
The Seattle Times reported that as of Friday, Boeing had 95 workers in Washington State who tested positive for the respiratory disease, up from 54 a week earlier. The newspaper said 14 of those work at the wide-body jet plant in Everett.
Boeing's airline customers have postponed taking new aircraft and made downpayments until delivery, compounding a dispute over Boeing's previously fast-selling 737 MAX jet's year-old grounding after two fatal crashes. In January Boeing suspended production of 737.
