EDF sends home 50% of workers at Hinkley Point C

EDF Energy has cut by more than half the number of staff working on its nuclear power plant construction project at Hinkley Point C.

The French-owned company announced this afternoon that it is “significantly” reducing the number of workers on the site, which is located on the Somerset coast.

Headcount will fall to around 2,000 – from c4,500 – during the coming days and then further as work already in progress is completed.

EDF is understood to be winding down ongoing construction work and ensuring that the critical nuclear island at the centre of the site can be made safe and ready for when work can resume after the worst stage of the coronavirus outbreak has passed.

The company, which was criticised by site workers in a local media report yesterday for not doing enough to keep them sufficiently far apart, is also ramping up its efforts to enable staff to work at a safe distance from one another.

EDF said it will work in a “focused and limited way” with greater use of split shifts, extra buses and staggered breaks.

In addition, reduced numbers of workers will allow easier social distancing in operational areas and sites such as canteens.

Other steps already in place by the company include shutting its Bristol head office, allowing those who can work from home to do, temperature checks on people entering the Hinkley site, extra cleaning, changes in movement patterns and closure of bars and gyms.

In its statement, EDF said: “The safety of workers and the community is the first priority at Hinkley Point C and a wide range of measures have already been put in place to protect workers and prevent the spread of infection.

“We will continue to work with the trade unions and our supply chain to keep people safe and help them deal with the developing situation.”

The company also said it will work with the local community around Hinkley to mitigate the impact of the slowdown on the project.

A spokesman said that while a number of workers at the site have self-isolated after developing coronavirus like symptoms, none had tested positive for the disease.

Matt Roberts, GMB regional officer, said: “After the Prime Minister’s announcement… and due to the sheer scale and number of people involved in the Hinkley Point C Project, it has become clear that despite the best efforts of the trade unions, employees, and the project board, it has become almost impossible to maintain full operations with the vital new measures introduced to combat COVID19. Safety is everyone’s top priority.

“We are aware that EDF and the companies involved are exploring options to keep workers, including the new government furlough scheme, and we will work with them to find solutions to the short term issues thrown up by the current crisis.”

The headcount reduction at the Hinkley Point has occurred as the exemption of construction sites from the general clampdown on non-essential business premises, announced last night by Boris Johnson, has been in the spotlight today.

Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for housing, said construction workers who are on site can continue to do so following the prime minister’s announcement.

But two of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey, have both announced today that they are pausing work on new homes while a number of high profile construction sites in London have shut.

EDF began work in 2017 on the 3.2GW Hinkley Point plant, which will be the UK’s first new power station in more than a generation when it is complete.