LOUISVILLE, Ky. — GE Appliances has provided a $2 per hour pay incentive to hourly production employees and service technicians through the end of April, the company and local union president Dino Driskell announced.
The incentive went into effect April 6 and there will be a discussion at the end of April for a possible extension. GE Appliances will also grant a leave of absence to anyone with underlying health, child or eldercare issues through the same time, Driskell said in a letter to union members. Members can apply for unemployment during that time.
The company said it has also implemented no-touch temperature screening, installed barriers between work stations, changed production lines to help social distance and provided handwashing or sanitation stations at each plant.
"Given that the Health Department has deemed Appliance Park to be within standards to operate and the Governor has deemed us to be an 'essential business,' we had to turn our efforts to minimizing risk to those with underlying health issues, childcare, and eldercare issues as well as a monetary gain for those that don’t fall within the categories listed," Driskell said.
GE said health professionals are available at every facility and through telemedicine. The company said 80% of salaried employees and 100% of customer support employees are working from home.
The company said a team focused on COVID-19 meets multiple times a day to review procedures and they are continuously working on improvements to help provide a safe work environment.
Appliance Park employees previously told WHAS11 they feared they would contract the virus after one building shut down for 24 hours due to a presumed but unconfirmed case of COVID-19.
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