When Disney World announced it would be temporarily closing, they noted they would continue paying full-time Cast Members who were unable to go to work.
Disney World Will Be Closed For At Least Two Weeks
But what does this closure and the current restaurant restrictions mean for employees of third-party-owned businesses on property? This is certainly a tough time for the world, but for those in service industries, it will be downright devastating.
Making sure that everyone is doing what’s best for the staff and Cast Members around Disney World is of particular importance to us here at DFB, but what is “best?” Thousands of employees are out of a job for an indeterminate amount of time, not knowing where their next dollar is coming from or whether they’re going to be able to pay for rent, bills, healthcare, or food.
Disney Cast Members
And restaurants are faced with difficult decisions affecting not only how to keep their businesses afloat during this tough time, but how to care for their employees as well.
Faced with tighter restrictions, many restaurants are seeing only a fraction of their normal patronage, leading some to have to make tough calls. So what does that mean for all of the restaurant workers at Disney (and the rest of the country!)?
Are Restaurants Really Just Firing Everyone?
The restaurant industry makes up 10% of the jobs in this country — roughly 15.1 million people. What’s happening to all of these people? Is everyone just out of a job?
With government restrictions, no one coming through the doors to help pay the bills, and a staff needing the money to survive, many restaurants have been faced with laying off the majority of their staff.
But it’s NOT as black and white, good-guy/bad-guy as you may think. No one disputes that we need to look out for the workers that have been uprooted, but the solutions are not as clear-cut as you may think.
Laying Off Staff Makes Them Eligible for Unemployment…
In the best of times, many restaurants work on very low margins. Trying to carry employees through an open-ended closure as well as paying rent and utilities for a restaurant that has stopped producing an income is a death sentence for many restaurants. And obviously if the restaurant goes out of business, this isn’t going to help the staff either.
By instituting lay-offs, restaurants are banking on the fact that many employees (both hourly and salaried) will qualify for government assistance through unemployment. While that’s likely not nearly as much compensation as they were making at their jobs, employees would make more this way than if their employers paid them the reduced salary they could manage during the closures.
Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Will Lay Off Staff So They’re Eligible for Unemployment
Through unemployment, most restaurant workers in most states qualify for roughly half the income they were making. In Florida, it caps off at $275 a week. This varies on job title and a variety of other factors, but it’s better than nothing. And it means the restaurant might still be there to come back to once the pandemic subsides and places start opening up again.
Disney Springs’ Splitsville Luxury Lanes and Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ are two of many restaurants taking this tack. We reached out to these restaurants for comment and they very quickly responded with the following statement:
“In this unprecedented time and after much deliberation, we were faced with the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic will likely continue for several months. It was clear that we had to set a course that would allow Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Kitchen and Splitsville Luxury Lanes to be resilient so that at the end of this uncertain road we would have a business for our employees to return to. Other well-known hospitality companies nationwide have chosen to follow similar paths. It is the hardest decision we have ever faced.
Our actions will allow our hourly teams to take advantage of their unemployment benefits and any other government assistance that will come available because of this crisis. In addition to their final checks, the company will continue to pay health insurance for employees who have elected to participate through April 30, 2020. Also, we are working on a plan to provide daily staff meals.
There is no playbook for this difficult time. Our employees are family and we have immense gratitude for each and every one of them. We pray that everyone stays safe and healthy.”
…But Is It Enough?
But that’s, unfortunately, not the end of this story. While most restaurants — including those in Disney World and Disneyland — are trying to do right by their employees and still save their businesses, we’re hearing from multiple sources that although terminated staff are now eligible for unemployment, the website to apply has been very glitchy — crashing multiple times per day. This adds insult to injury and delays potential benefits.
Also, while unemployment benefits may be an option for many out of work employees, will it be enough to live off of until the restaurant industry rights itself? In lots of high cost-of-living locations around the country, like New York City and San Francisco, the answer is a resounding no.
On top of that, looking nationwide of course, undocumented individuals in the U.S. likely make up a significant portion of the restaurant industry in this country. Due to their status, they don’t qualify for unemployment at all, leaving a portion of restaurant workers completely stranded. Regardless of the current laws, thousands of unemployed workers will put a huge drag on an economy already strained from the effects of the pandemic.
Many Disney Springs Stores and Restaurants Are Shuttered
Relief Plans and Restaurant Assistance Programs
There’s no clear answer to the question of whose job it is to maintain a paycheck and/or health benefits for restaurant workers through this unexpected and debilitating time for the restaurant industry, and the fall-out is significant for them. But the federal government and private restaurant groups are instituting some relief plans at the moment.
The government’s new relief plan passed just days ago WILL provide paid sick leave for employees of qualified businesses with more than 50 employees or fewer than 500. This is great for small businesses, but it means if you work at a major food chain you could possibly not qualify for assistance. If you get sick, your options are to stay home and not get paid or go to work and potentially risk infecting countless others.
Restaurant Groups are Doing What They Can to Help
Many major food chains are stepping up to be included in the relief plan or opting to provide assistance themselves. For instance, Starbucks announced a plan to help employees in this difficult time. They’re implementing “catastrophe pay” for any worker who is found in close contact with or that contracts COVID-19. They’ll be allowed to stay home and receive pay for 14 days (the recommended 2 weeks of quarantine time) of sick time. In the event their condition continues, additional assistance can be given up to 26 weeks in some cases.
Starbucks Will Offer Paid Sick Leave
The massive Darden Restaurant Group, which runs Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, among others, have shifted most of their operations around the country to primarily take-out and delivery options, requiring a significantly reduced staff. To compensate, they’ve begun offering their hourly employees, who previously didn’t qualify, paid sick leave to help take a bit of the burden off of reduced hours. They may implement a furlough program for employees to help them retain benefits through this time if it comes to having employees not come in at all.
Some restaurant groups that are able to do so, such as those run by chef José Andrés who runs Jaleo and Pepe in Disney Springs, have begun to offer discounted gift cards, with proceeds going directly to paying employees during this tough time.
Jaleo is instituting programs to help its employees through this time
Currently, Jaleo is taking things one step further by paying its Disney Springs employees and other affected personnel for two weeks while also extending their benefits. With the new e-gift card program, they’re hoping to keep providing for their staff beyond that time. They hope to welcome back employees as soon as this situation improves.
What’s To Come And What Can WE Do?
The one positive we’ve seen in this has been the almost unanimous response from restauranteurs that they wholeheartedly plan to bring back every employee once things start to get better. They’re not simply letting everyone go, they’re working out plans to ramp back up when things improve and to quickly reopen with their former staff members in place.
But this will be a long and arduous road for everyone in the hospitality industry — from restaurant workers to hotel employees to travel professionals. And following this unprecedented crash in profits, many companies and their employees will then have to weather an economic recession as well.
This is an incredibly trying time for the U.S. as well as the whole world. We’re facing a lot of people out of work. The best thing we can do right now to help the industry overall is follow CDC guidelines. Stay home. Stay quarantined. Stay isolated so that we can conquer the virus as quickly as possible, and the world can start functioning again. Only then will things have a chance to get better financially for the millions of displaced workers and all other domino effects.
Click Here To Read Our Disney Closure Coverage, Including Our Thoughts on When Disney World Will Re-Open
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Can people please keep in mind that these layoffs wouldn’t be happening if restaurants weren’t required to close? These restaurants are not to blame.
Thanks for an insightful article. I know it’s a highly sensitive topic, but as a matter of law/fact, “Undocumented U.S. Citizens” is inaccurate terminology. I believe you were trying to say “undocumented immigrants.” Citizens, by definition, could not also be undocumented. Also Disney and its (at least public facing) contractors do comply with I-9 and other procedures on this so I doubt that there would be many CM’s and contractors working at Disney Parks who would be impacted. But in any event yes there will be many, including undocumented, workers impacted by this situation.
We’re in limbo right now. My husband has a part-time job that hasn’t scheduled him since 2/9 because he’s low man there and there isn’t enough work for him. They are usually much busier this time of year.
He was due to be in Traditions to go back to his old job at Disney (we were in TX for 9 years due to family) last Saturday. They called him Friday night to postpone.
We just moved back here from TX on January 1st.
So, technically he isn’t a CM even though he’s had all of his onboarding so he isn’t laid off from Disney.
He isn’t laid off from his p/t job – he just hasn’t been on the schedule the last 7 weeks.
We just don’t know what to do. Filing for UI has been stressful because the site keeps crashing and all his base period wages are in TX.
Very stressful.
Not so fun fact: Florida’s unemployment maxes out at $275 a week.
So no those restaurants were not doing their employees a favor.
You do not have to fire your employees for them to receive unemployment benefits. They can receive unemployment benefits faster if they are laid off.
This isn’t just a blog, it’s journalism! Nice job.
I’m sorry there’s firing and then there is what Splitsville and Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming did. I for one will not eat to patronage those establishments again when at Disney
Unemployment isn’t “government assistance.” It’s insurance that workers pay into every week, starting from their very first paycheck.
Not quite. Employees contribute to Social Security. Unemployment is paid for by the employer. Which is why some employees who have been falsely classified as “contractors” are out of luck; their companies weren’t paying into unemployment insurance for them.
I am building a ride at Epcot as a sub contractor. I received no notice that construction was to be suspended. Disney has added to my hardship by refusing access to my personal equipment which I use to make a living. I am not surprised, Disney treats it’s vendors with contempt on a good day. The arrogance and incompetence of the “Imagineers” is truly breath taking.
FYI Employees that get fired don’t qualify for unemployment. You get fired because of poor job performance or other misconduct. Disney’s employees and their sub-contractors have laid-off their employees because of no work due to the shut-down. As such they do qualify for unemployment. Please be more careful with your use of terminology.
I love your newsletters & posts on social so please know I’m not trying to criticize you. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t say this: There is a huge difference between being fired (you did something bad) vs being laidoff (something bad happened to you through no fault of your own).
As someone who’s been laidoff twice in the past, it really adds insult to injury when someone says you were fired when you didn’t do anything wrong & would still have a job if the business wasn’t trying to cut expenses.
Would you consider changing all references to being fired to laidoff?
Livvy, I appreciate your message. I can understand that the title might feel jarring. We received questions from readers to that effect, so that’s why we used “laid off” or “laying off” within the post — specifically to clarify for folks who were asking.
Thank you for your feedback, SJC. We were careful to clarify within the post that employees were laid off, since we had some readers and followers asking about Disney “firing” folks.
NONE of these employees were 1) fired, terminated or 2) laid off. They were ALL furloughed. There is a difference. That means, when things get back to normal, that their jobs are waiting for them and it’s business as usual. In FL, you cannot file for unemployment if you are furloughed. The government is sending out checks to help. This is a time where one needs to examine why they were so complacent and not setting aside money in case of crisis, whether it’s your car breaking down needing repair, losing your job and having to move because you can’t afford the rent or having an accident that lands you in the hospital without healthcare. As a society, we have to and need to stop living paycheck to paycheck. This situation should be a wake up call for every single American in this country.
Disney made 70 billion dollars last year. Its wealth and resources are massive. They can well afford to pay their employees a living wage and help them through these unprecedented times this should include third party vendors on their properties. They could also not have sent their international interns packing in the middle of a pandemic. Instead they kicked them out and they had to fend for themselves and find alternative housing and flights back in the middle of a travel ban. This is ABHORRENT behavior from a company that is supposedly based on family. Its disgusting and they HAVE to do better. NOW.
The non-Disney owned business were not required to close. However, Disney closed there parking areas so potential guests had no where to park. With area hotels closed, little to none walk up traffic.
As a restaurant owner, I appreciate you explaining this to people that in laying off staff, it’s so they can qualify for unemployment since we don’t have enough business to keep their hours up. It’s such a hard time and people are just trying to do what’s best so we can all survive.
Re: Michael -the majority of the internal cast are still here and living in Disney housing. The Cultural Representative program which is most internationals around the world showcase and in Animal kingdom lodge/animal kingdom were given the option to go home if they wanted to, but the vast majority are still here waiting to work again. The International college program is who were sent home along with the US base college program. Many were assisted with flights and travel. It is very sad that they left but there is a difference in the programs and visas.
Some folks have stated that when someone is “fired” it means they’ve been a poor employee or done something wrong whereas being “laid off” is when there’s no work, etc. Actually, employers in “at will” states can fire you for no reason at all. Florida is an “at will” state so employers can fire, demote, or promote you for no reason at all. If they get up on the wrong side of the bed one day and decide they don’t want you working for them, you’re gone. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t qualify for unemployment insurance! You file and then (usually) you’ll be interviewed about why you aren’t working. The person in charge of your file will then contact your former employer and hear their side; after that, the state employee makes a determination, based on state law, as to whether or not you qualify for payment.
Why are you blaming Disney. The real culprit is COVID-19. It is the enemy and it needs to be fought out by following the guidelines set up by our government. We need to stand together, not put blame on anyone or any business . We are all suffering across America. Let’s just do what is needed to slow down and dissolve the real enemy and we will be much better for it. IT’S TIME TO STAND UP AMERICA!!
Are the unpaid full time performers still covered for their medical plan?
Is the two Rain Forest Restaurants opening on May 20th.?