With no sign of being allowed to re-open their Disneyland theme park any time soon, The Walt Disney Company has announced that they’ll be enacting even more furloughs to the staff of the park. Disneyland president Ken Potrock made the announcement to staff in a memo that was released on Monday (H/T Deadline), these cuts will effect executive, salaried and hourly cast members for the company with the Hollywood trade noting that 67% of these furloughs will be for part-time employees. Today’s announcement comes after the company announced in September that they would be laying off 28,000 staffers.
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“As you know, we’ve already taken the heart-wrenching action of laying off thousands of our Cast on both coasts,” Potrock wrote in the memo. “We expected to be able to open our parks in Anaheim, given our proven ability to operate with responsible health and safety protocols as we have in all of our other theme parks around the world, but unfortunately this has not been the case….While the near term will be challenging as we continue to navigate in these turbulent times, I promise you that we will continue to work tirelessly to reopen the Resort and get our Cast Members back to work, and that my optimism for our bright future continues to be strong.
Like has previously been done by The Walt Disney Company, furloughed employees will still have access to their health and insurance benefits with the company paying both the employer and employee contributions; may use their available paid-time off hours; have access to state unemployment insurance benefits; and continue to use the the Disney Aspire education program
While California Governor Gavin Newsom remains steadfast in stringent benchmarks municipalities need to reach before their parks are allowed to reopen to the masses in the state, Disneyland is already set to re-open a portion of their Disney California Adventure Park but exclusively fo shopping and dining purposes. In a letter penned collaboratively amongst the mayors of the towns where Disneyland and other California theme parks are located, the group asked for further guidance and help in getting these locations open, warning that they could end up being closed until next year.
Though the Disney World parks remain open in Florida for the time being, most of the other theme parks owned by The Walt Disney Company remain shuttered. Disneyland Paris was closed again two weeks ago due to COVID-19 restrictions.
(Cover photo by Disney Parks)
