South Korean solar firm cuts pay and hours for Georgia workers as US officials detain imports

A South Korean star institution says it volition temporarily trim wage and moving hours for astir 1,000 of its 3,000 employees successful Georgia due to the fact that U.S. customs officials person been detaining imported components for star panels

ATLANTA -- A South Korean star institution says it volition temporarily trim wage and moving hours for astir 1,000 of its 3,000 employees successful Georgia due to the fact that U.S. customs officials person been detaining imported components needed to marque star panels.

Qcells, a portion of South Korea's Hanwha Solutions, said Friday that it volition besides laic disconnected 300 workers from staffing agencies astatine its plants successful Dalton and Cartersville, some northwest of Atlanta.

The institution says U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been detaining imported components astatine ports connected suspicion that they incorporate materials that whitethorn person been made with forced labour successful China, meaning it can't tally its star sheet assembly lines astatine afloat strength.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced successful August that her section was stepping up enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a 2021 instrumentality that restricts Chinese goods made with forced labour from entering the U.S. Published reports bespeak that U.S. officials began detaining star cells made by Qcells successful June. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection couldn't instantly reply questions astir Qcells connected Friday.

Qcells says nary of its materials oregon components are made with forced labour oregon adjacent travel from China. Spokesperson Marta Stoepker said the institution maintains “robust proviso concatenation owed diligence measures” and “very elaborate documentation,” which has been palmy successful getting immoderate shipments released.

“Our latest proviso concatenation is sourced wholly extracurricular of China and our bequest proviso chains incorporate nary worldly from Xinjiang state based connected 3rd enactment audits and supplier guarantees,” Stoepker said.

She said Qcells is continuing to cooperate and expects to resume afloat accumulation successful the coming weeks and months.

“Although our proviso concatenation operations are opening to normalize, contiguous we shared with our employees that HR actions indispensable beryllium taken to amended operational ratio until accumulation capableness returns to mean levels," Stoepker said successful a statement.

Qcells has said it pays workers an mean of astir $53,000 a year. Workers volition clasp afloat benefits during furloughs.

Qcells is completing a $2.3 cardinal works successful Cartersville that volition fto it instrumentality polysilicon refined successful Washington authorities and marque ingots, wafers and star cells — the gathering blocks of finished star modules. That volition let it to trim imports of star modules. The institution has said it volition decorativeness the works adjacent though President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress dismantled astir of the taxation credits for buying star panels earlier this year.

“Our committedness to gathering the full star proviso concatenation successful the United States remains,” Stoepker said. "We volition soon beryllium backmost connected way with the afloat unit of our Georgia squad delivering American-made vigor to communities astir the country.”

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