Agropur laying off employees in light of pandemic

April 6, 2020, Longueuil, Que. – Agropur is eliminating certain positions and temporarily laying off some employees who are not assigned to essential operational duties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In all, 260 employees in Canada are affected. Sixty positions are being eliminated and 200 employees are being temporarily laid off, or about three per cent of Agropur’s global workforce.

“These are difficult decisions to make but they are necessary in order to maintain the sustainability of our business,” Agropur CEO Émile Cordeau said in a statemtn. “Our goal is to bring the temporarily laid-off employees back to work as soon as we can resume the normal course of business.

“A support team has been set up to help the employees who will be leaving the organization transition and guide them through the process of applying for the government support programs.”

The company states that Agropur moved quickly in the early days of the crisis to establish measures protecting the health and safety of its employees and a business continuity plan to ensure it can continue delivering high-quality dairy products to its customers and consumers.

Detailed instructions regarding travel restrictions, telework, hygiene, disinfection, mandatory reporting of illness and access control at all sites for all employees, suppliers and visitors are in place and have been toughened.

The company states that it wishes to thank its teams for rapidly implementing the measures, and its employees who are doing a remarkable job at the forefront of the manufacturing and distribution process.

Agropur Cooperative is a North American dairy industry leader founded in 1938 and had sales of $7.3 billion in 2019. The Cooperative has 3,024 members and 8,800 employees.