BY ANNA WOLFE / Mississippi Today 

Since March 20, when Nissan ceased production in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the company said it continued paying the employees it sent home their full salary.

This week, Nissan temporarily laid off all employees at its Canton plant, about 4,000, who have stopped working during the pandemic. The company plans to start production again on April 27, but still hasn’t determined the safest way to bring back employees, whether all at once or staggered over time.

“Obviously safety is the most important thing, especially if the virus hasn’t started to flatten out in terms of new cases,” said Nissan spokesperson Lloryn Love-Carter. “When you have that many people in a plant, we don’t want to be a reason for the cases to grow.”

Nissan’s approach diverges from some other large companies that have continued plant operations in Mississippi, such as Ingalls Shipbuilding, which employs 11,500 in Pascagoula and has reported 13 COVID-19 cases among its employees. Ingalls, like other employers, has conducted deep cleaning and sanitizing to contain the spread of the virus.

Nissan encourages its workers to file for unemployment, which comes with a maximum weekly benefit of $235 in Mississippi.

Federal legislation passed over a week ago boosts that amount by $600, but Mississippi Department of Employment Security spokesperson Dianne Bell said Monday the state still doesn’t know when it will kick in.

The increase, which will make it easier for jobless workers to support their families during this time, played into Nissan’s decision to layoff workers.

“The enhanced benefits through the CARES Act, that gave us some solace in terms of making that decision,” Love-Carter said.

During the last week in March, a historic 31,000 Mississippians filed for unemployment as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in shuttered businesses and cancelled events. Nissan’s layoffs could result in another rush of claims for an agency already struggling to keep up with the influx.

The Nissan plant in Canton, opened in 2003 after receiving generous tax incentives from the state, $1.3 billion in the first decade, is touted as one of Mississippi’s greatest economic achievements. Once employing over 6,000 workers, recent sales declines resulted in layoffs at the Canton plant. Now the plant employs about 5,250 — which includes an unspoken number of temporary workers that don’t receive the same benefits as Nissan employees.

About 1,250 current employees are administrative, managerial, or maintenance workers who can continue working even through production has stopped, including some working from home.

While the plant currently plans to resume operations in three weeks and eventually hire back all employees, Love-Carter said the company will “continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed.”