Disney Cuts 28,000 From Its Parks, Resorts Division

Disney announced that it is laying off 28,000 employees across its Parks, Experiences and Products unit, CNN reported, due to the economic effects of the pandemic.

Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, said the pandemic had put the company in a “difficult” place and that Disney is looking to emerge as a more efficient company once the pandemic ends, CNN reported.

According to Disney, 67 percent of the cuts will be to part-time workers. Disney’s parks and resorts division has over 100,000 employees in the U.S., CNN reported.

“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,” D’Amaro said, according to a memo to employees seen by CNN.

He also put part of the blame on the state of California for restrictions that haven’t let the company’s operations there reopen. Disneyland and California Adventure have been closed since March.

In June, PYMNTS reported on the delays in reopening Disneyland resorts, with no protocol in place until after the Fourth of July holiday. There was no reopening date listed, and labor groups had been petitioning Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay the reopening of the park for health concerns. The Coalition of Resort Labor Unions said in a letter that it wasn’t convinced that it was safe to reopen such a populated designation.

The company was willing to provide temperature checks, but it hadn’t been quick to respond to demands for more testing for the coronavirus.

The Florida Walt Disney World location, while closed in March as well, began a phased reopening over the summer, with reduced capacity and mask requirements, CNN reported.

In May, PYMNTS reported that the opening of Shanghai Disneyland foreshadowed the requirements for such public spaces, including social distancing, face masks and more.