Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Electric vehicle startup Canoo notified on Thursday some employees at its Oklahoma factory of a 12-week furlough as part of what it called a ‘broader realignment of North American operations.
In an internal memo, the company’s General Counsel Hector Ruiz informed employees that the furlough period could be adjusted “at the sole discretion of the company.”
Kfor’s reporter Dylan Brown has spoken with several affected employees since Thursday, who told him that the percentage of affected staff is 80%/90 %, instead of the 23% announced by Canoo.
“I had two more furloughed Canoo workers who reached out and said the same percentage that the worker we interviewed said, that 80% or 90% of their manufacturing staff was furloughed. Canoo says “23% of our factory workers..””, the reporter wrote on X.
As of Sunday, the company had 76 job openings listed on LinkedIn, including three posted about three weeks ago for a Security Manager, an HSE (Health, Safety and Environmental) Manager, and a software engineer for over-the-air (OTA) updates.
Shares of Canoo dropped 27.3% on Friday to an all-time low of 55 cents following the announcement of the 12-week furlough, which will leave affected employees without regular pay.
Besides notifying employees that during your furlough period, they would “not be actively working, and therefore, you will not receive your regular salary,” Canoo informed that the health insurance would also terminate on the same day it notified the staff, October 31.
In a new statement, the EV maker said on Saturday it would extend healthcare benefits for furloughed employees from October 31 to November 30, responding to feedback from affected workers.
“We are committed to supporting our impacted workers during this challenging time and will provide necessary resources to assist them,” Canoo said.
“Continuing our commitment to our impacted workers and in reflection on the feedback we received, we acknowledge the oversight in health care coverage during this furlough period. In quick response, our current leadership team is extending health coverage at the same level each furloughed employee had as of October 31, at no cost to them, in recognition of their service to the company,” the company added.
Canoo confirmed it would be reaching out to all furloughed employees to communicate the update.
“We are actively reaching out to each furloughed employee today to communicate this benefit and to ensure that their coverage remains active through November 30. This demonstrates our commitment to our furloughed employees and our ability to swiftly take corrective action,” the company stated.
Speaking to Kfor, a worker said, “It irritated me because they just had a town hall meeting or something in September where they said they are doing good and they have plans to get everything up and running.”
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
