Norcold Inc. is laying off 345 workers at its two plants in reaction to Gov. Mike DeWine's stay-at-home order, a company official said in a letter Monday sent to the Ohio Department of Jobs & Family Services.
The letter, from Alissa Reyes, Norcold HR vice president, said the governor's announcement "for all people and non-essential businesses requires Norcold Incorporated layoff a substantial portion of our workforce."
In order to be compliant with the state order, Reyes said in the letter sent Monday afternoon, "we will be laying off 345 employees over the course of the next several hours."
The layoffs will occur between both of Norcold's Ohio locations:
• 224 of our 265 employees will be laid off from the manufacturing facility, 600 S. Kuther Road, in Sidney
• 121 of our 137 employees will be laid off from the cooling unit manufacturing facility, 1 Century Drive, Gettysburg, Ohio.
"Given the timing of the government mandated shutdown announcement, we were unable to give the 60-day notice period that WARN (Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act), under normal circumstances, requires. At the end of this government mandated shut down, we anticipate recalling the majority of the impacted workforce back."
Norcold produces refrigerators.
