A MAJOR aircraft manufacturing plant in Flintshire has assured the public that all coronavirus preventing precautions are in place.

It comes after concerns were raised by a number of family members of employees at the Airbus Broughton site, who felt that their loved ones health was being compromised for profit.

However, despite calls for the aerospace giant to cease operation, due to there being 'no demand for plane parts' during the virus pandemic, they have stated that their presence as a major industrial leading company plays a vital role in society as being a driver of employment, skills, expertise, tax revenues and as a provider of critical services to their customers.

Ian Middleton, director of communications at Airbus UK, said: "We decided to pause production and assembly at our sites in France and Spain for four days, with the aim of immediately implementing the health and safety measures required to protect people working in our facilities.

"The same measures were also implemented in the UK, Germany, the US and Canada without full interruption of production.

"This included evaluating and adapting all our ways of working to adhere to strict social-distancing and risk-mitigation measures and ensuring everyone who can work from home is doing so."

One relative of a long-term employee at the Broughton site, contacted the Leader to air their concerns that Government advice is not being followed which could result in the spread of the virus to the most vulnerable members of society.

They said: "My husband works at the site and I'm extremely worried about his wellbeing, not to mention the spread of germs to our children.

"He stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other workers, so the recommended social distancing is not being followed.

"He's told me that at dinner time, there are around 12 men eating together in the locker room - there's just no room to be separated."

"Other companies like JCB have halted operation so why can't Airbus? It just doesn't make sense.

"My husband has got to work to provide for his family like many others there, and the only option that they have been given is to take two weeks unpaid leave but that's not realistic for some."

Mr Middleton, added: "We leveraged the lessons learned from our operations in China as our colleagues in Tianjin have been implementing measures that proved to be efficient.

"In order to weather the crisis, it is clear: we need to protect our people against the outbreak, and we also have to restore and maintain our operations at a certain level. We have two crises to face, not one: the health crisis, and the economic crisis.

"We need to find solutions, we need to move forward on both of them, simultaneously and now.

"We are continuously monitoring the situation and are allowing those that can work from home to work from home."