“We don’t know that any of these furloughs will be permanent, but it is possible that presently unforeseeable circumstances may cause us to revise our outlook,” Walters said in the letter, received today by ODJFS.
MORE: Job losses continue to mount in Butler County: Where they’re happening
Furloughed employees will remain eligible for benefits and Cox Automotive has committed to paying the employee portion of medical, dental, vision, life insurance and long-term disability benefits for those employees previously enrolled in coverage.
The company anticipates the furlough may last up to 16 weeks.
“We are hopeful that the COVID-19 pandemic will improve in the very near future, that current economic conditions will change, and that we will be able to have employees return to work as soon as possible,” Walters said. “However, as we cannot predict how long the COVID-19 situation will last, its public health impact, and its effects upon our operations and business, we cannot rule out that furloughs could be longer than initially anticipated.
MORE: ‘We’re trying to help everybody’: Retailers all over Butler County changing to make hand sanitizer
Cox Automotive is an Atlanta-based business unit of Cox Enterprises, formed in 2014 to consolidate all of Cox’s global automotive businesses, including Kelley Blue Book, Xtime, Autotrader.com and Manheim. Cox Enterprises also owns the Journal-News, Dayton Daily News and Springfield News-Sun.
Walters said Cox Automotive was unable to provide notice earlier to ODJFS because the extent of the public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disaster/physical calamity, as well as the effects of the resulting, dramatic downturn in business, were “sudden, unforeseeable, and outside of our control.”
About the Author
