Disney announced in a letter to its employees Tuesday that the company will lay off 28,000 employees across its parks due to the impact of COVID-19 had on their business.
The company, which declined to break the cuts down by facility, said that 67% of cuts would affect part time employees in the parks, experiences and consumer products segment, CNBC reported. (RELATED: Disney Threatened To Pull Out Of Georgia Over Abortion Law, But Filmed ‘Mulan’ In Region Where Chinese Uighurs Are Imprisoned)
“We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived, and that we would recover quickly and return to normal. Seven months later, we find that has not been the case. And, as a result, today we are now forced to reduce the size of our team across executive, salaried, and hourly roles,” Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division said in the letter.
NEW: Disney laying off 28,000 workers amid continued strain from pandemic: “We simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while operating at such limited capacity.” https://t.co/6Gf3YKAeir
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 29, 2020
“For the last several months, our management team has worked tirelessly to avoid having to separate anyone from the company,” D’Amaro added. “We’ve cut expenses, suspended capital projects, furloughed our cast members while still paying benefits, and modified our operations to run as efficiently as possible. However, we simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while operating at such limited capacity.
Disney has opened some of its international parks and its park in Florida at limited capacity, but the California park remains closed, CNBC added. The company reported $4.5 billion combined second and third quarter losses.
