Not long after the Parks around the globe have had to furlough a portion of their employees, Walt Disney Studios has had to follow along and also furlough a portion of their employees.
THR is reporting that:
Furloughs have hit Walt Disney Studios, Hollywood’s sprawling movie empire. The expected notices, which impact an undetermined number of employees, were handed out Thursday.
Disney Hitting The Brakes
This affects a huge portion of employees spread out across all of the film studio’s companies, including:
- Walt Disney Studios
- Pixar
- Marvel Studios
- Lucasfilm
- Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 20th Century Pictures
- Searchlight Pictures
Luckily, there are some good things about this. One thing is that all furloughed employees are still employed with the company, and they will be getting full health care benefits. And those employees with the Disney Aspire Education Program will still be able to access to it. However, it will still be a heavy financial blow.
THR also said that:
Additionally, employees with available paid time off can elect to use some or all of it at the start of the furlough period and, once furloughed, they are eligible to receive an extra $600 per week in federal compensation through the $2 trillion economic stimulus bill, as well as state unemployment insurance.
The Walt Disney Company did release a statement on April 2nd, and that statement said in part:
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on our world with untold suffering and loss, and has required all of us to make sacrifices. Over the last few weeks, mandatory decrees from government officials have shut down a majority of our businesses. Employees have received full pay and benefits during this time, and we’ve committed to paying them through April 18, for a total of five additional weeks of compensation.
This is pretty bad for any employees of the Studios across the board. Multiple productions across all Disney-owned movie brands have either had production halted, or those films were delayed or released early to On-Demand and Disney+. This will undoubtedly affect the entire Entertainment colgarment and have severe ramifications over the course of the next year in multiple and various different ways.
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