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MICHauto Letter to State Workgroup Urges Safe Reopening of Offices

March 24, 2021

On March 24, MICHauto Executive Director, Glenn Stevens Jr., sent a letter to Sean Egan, the deputy director of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, who is overseeing Gov. Whitmer’s Return-to-Office Workgroup, regarding the safe return to offices. MICHauto collected industry insight and feedback from automotive businesses throughout the state of Michigan on the importance of safely resuming in-person work. Current Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) emergency restrictions on in-person office work end on April 15. The Workgroup is tasked with making recommendations to the governor on how those rules should be amended.

The current rules require employers to develop policies related to workers who are in-person and those who work from home, with guidance to remote work where possible. This has limited critical in-person interaction for the automotive industry, which relies on engineers, designers, and program managers collaborating for innovation. The automotive industry has been a leader for the state of Michigan in fighting the pandemic and restarting our economy. The “Safe to Work” playbooks and the #MaskUpMichigan campaign exemplify the seriousness with which the industry has taken employee and public health from the very beginning. Manufacturing reopened on May 11, 2020, and has stayed open since. The overwhelming perspective of MICHauto investors is that businesses need to be to responsibly return to the office.

View the official letter below or download it here.