After laying off more than 30,000 employees in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Walt Disney Co. is now offering $1,000 bonuses to recruit new housekeepers and select kitchen staff at Disney World.
Housekeepers, making $16 an hour, and line cooks, earning $18, can receive the money if they stay on the job for at least 90 days, according to the company’s website.
About 33,000 of the more than 41,000 members of the Service Trades Council Union have returned to work at Disney World, according to Matt Hollis, president of that worker coalition. About 15,000 of the 32,000 workers at California’s Disneyland resort have returned, the company said.
Disney, which was forced to close its theme parks around the world due to the coronavirus, announced plans in September to lay off 28,000 employees, a number that later grew to 32,000 companywide. Most of them were at its domestic resorts.
Disney said it has rehired more than three-quarters of those affected by furloughs and work reductions. Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, has been bringing back 300 staffers a week, and the company wants to hire thousands more at its U.S. resorts this summer and fall.