Skip to main content

Disneyland furloughing more staff as it waits to reopen in California

News
disneyland

Disneyland has announced that it is furloughing more employees, saying the “recently released state guidelines put us in limbo regarding reopening” in California.

According to The OCR, the furloughs were announced in a letter to staff sent from Disneyland president Ken Potrock on Monday (November 10).

The number of staff set to be furloughed is unknown, but the action includes executives, salaried and hourly employees of Disneyland.

Disney has reopened parks in TokyoShanghai, and Hong Kong. However, Disneyland is still closed in California and Disneyland Paris is temporarily shut in France.

“Since Disneyland resort closed its gates in March, nothing has been more important than fully reopening and getting our cast members back to work,” wrote Potrock.

“That’s why it is with heavy hearts we find ourselves in the untenable situation of having to institute additional furloughs for our executive, salaried and hourly cast.”

Disneyland instituting additional furloughs

disney california adventure buena vista street
Disney

Meanwhile, Walt Disney World is laying off more than 11,000 employees in Florida, as part of redundancy plans affecting around 28,000 workers due to the impact of COVID-19.

“We expected to be able to open our parks in Anaheim, given our proven ability to operate with responsible health and safety protocols as we have in all of our other theme parks around the world, but unfortunately this has not been the case,” added Potrock.

“These decisions and actions are difficult – and we are committed to helping our teams through this and, most importantly, getting people back to work where we can.

“While the near term will be challenging as we continue to navigate in these turbulent times, I promise you that we will continue to work tirelessly to reopen the resort and get our cast members back to work, and that my optimism for our bright future continues to be strong.

“I want to thank each and every one of you for your resiliency and resolve during these challenging and unpredictable times.”

“We expected to be able to open our parks in Anaheim”

disney california adventure
Disney

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has reopened under state guidelines, making it the first amusement park to welcome visitors in California.

However, larger theme parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood are unable to reopen until the respective county is in the ‘yellow’ tier.

Disneyland recently fired back after California released restrictive new guidelines under which theme parks in the state could reopen with modifications.

California theme parks are also exploring legal action in order to pressure the state into allowing them to reopen, revealed during a virtual press conference held by CAPA.

Share this

Bea Mitchell

Bea is a journalist specialising in entertainment, attractions and tech with 10 years' experience. She has written and edited for publications including CNET, BuzzFeed, Digital Spy, Evening Standard and BBC. Bea graduated from King's College London and has an MA in journalism.

More from this author

More from this author

Related content

Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for more security, speed and the best experience on this site.

Find out how to update