Universal Orlando lays off employees weeks after reopening
'This decision was not made lightly, but was necessary to prepare us for the future'
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Universal Orlando laid off an unspecified amount of theme park employees this week despite reopening the facility at the beginning of the month.
“We have made the difficult decision to reduce our Parks & Resorts workforce across multiple locations and business units,” Universal Orlando spokesperson Tom Schroder told FOX Business. "This decision was not made lightly, but was necessary to prepare us for the future."
Officials did not reveal how many employees were affected. However, Schroder noted that the company will support them through the process by offering severance pay, subsidized health benefits and professional reemployment assistance.
“We are working to structure and strengthen our business for the future in anticipation of the tourism industry taking time to fully recover," he added. "In that regard, we have already taken important steps such as adjusting budgets and implementing salary reductions and furloughs."
UNIVERSAL TAKES FIRST STEPS REVIVING ORLANDO THEME PARK BUSINESS
A Universal Studios employee takes the temperature of a guest entering the theme park in Orlando, Florida on June 3, 2020. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
UNIVERSAL ORLANDO TARGETS JUNE 5 CORONAVIRUS REOPENING
On June 3 -- nearly three months after going dark to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 -- Universal Orlando, owned and operated by NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, became the first major theme park in the area to reopen, allowing annual pass holders to return to its parks. By June 5, the parks opened for the general public.
Like its competitors, Universal is still grappling with the fallout from the virus, which has hit the tourism industry particularly hard as global lockdown orders kept residents homebound for an extended period of time. Even as restrictions around the virus continue to be lifted, Tourism Economics, a data and consulting firm that has been tracking the impact of COVID-19, predicts global travel demand won’t rebound to its normal pace until 2023. More than 121,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.
In this June 3, 2020 file photo, visitors arrive at Universal Studios, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
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Part-time hourly workers were furloughed beginning May 3, although Universal promised to still provide benefits for employees who already had them.
In April, Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood announced full-time employees would be paid their entire salary through April 19. However, the company said that pay and workload for most workers will be reduced to 80 percent after that.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.