Much like Walt Disney World is doing with their furloughed Cast Members, Universal plans on auto-enrolling the furloughed Team Members and Employees of the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida, according to News13.
What’s Happening:
- Universal Orlando confirmed that they plan on “Auto-Enrolling” their furloughed team members into Florida’s unemployment system.
- The company closed the Florida parks in Mid-March in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, later extending that closing to last “at least” through May 31st. They also announced that beginning April 20, nearly all of their team members will be paid at 80 percent of their normal salaries and that part-time hourly workers will be furloughed beginning May 3 with the company fully covering the cost of benefit plans for those team members who have them.
- This comes shortly after the Walt Disney World Resort announced that they would be planning on “auto-enrolling” the over 70,000 cast members of the resort into the state’s unemployment system by directly submitting all the employee’s information to the state, and filing the claims for them.
- In response to Walt Disney World’s “auto-enrollment” into the State’s notoriously problematic unemployment system, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that these employees would not get priority access to benefits, only that it meant their information would be entered in slower traffic periods like the overnight hours, and the employees themselves would not have to do the filing.
- Currently, executives from the Universal Orlando Resort are on two different task forces in the State of Florida developing strategies to reopen the State’s economy. John Sprouls, the CEO of Universal Parks and Resorts is on the State’s task force assembled by Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Rich Costales, Executive Vice President of Resort Operations is on a team assembled by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.