Despite positive news of an impending Covid-19 vaccine, Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) said it is furloughing additional workers from its Disneyland theme park in Southern California, because it still does not know when the state will allow it to fully reopen.
The number of furloughs, which include executive, salaried and hourly workers, was not known. It comes on top of the 28,000 employees who were laid off in September, mostly across Disney’s U.S. theme parks in California and Florida.
The furloughs were announced in a memo to staff from Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock. Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California, has been closed since mid-March.
California health authorities in October dashed hopes of reopening large theme parks anytime soon, saying that cannot happen until the Covid-19 risk level falls to the lowest of the state’s four tiers regarding virus spread and infections.
As a result, Disney said it is "in the untenable situation of having to institute additional furloughs for our executive, salaried and hourly cast." The furloughed employees will be able to maintain health insurance, and the company hopes to get them back to work once Disneyland eventually reopens.
Disney’s theme parks in Florida and outside the U.S. reopened earlier this year without seeing new major Covid-19 outbreaks but with strict social distancing, testing and mask use requirements.
Disneyland Paris was forced to close again late last month when France imposed a new lockdown to fight a second wave of Covid-19 cases. The company’s theme parks in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo remain open.
