Union Says 30% of Furloughed Disney World Employees Didn’t Receive Benefits
Walt Disney World will be officially reopening the theme parks in under a month and over the past few weeks we ‘ve shared several stories of cast members that have been called back to work. However, many have not.
According to a piece on WESH, local unions are speaking out regarding the roughly 30% of furloughed employees that never received benefits. One cast member, Tarek Hamdan said, “I can’t wait six to seven weeks. My bills are not waiting six to seven weeks,” Hamden told the news network that he’s worked at a Disney restaurant for 8 years and has yet to receive any money in unemployment benefits.
For many of those furloughed, this is a bitter pill to swallow considering that Disney auto-enrolled tens of thousands of cast members in the hopes that it would expedite the process. As Hamden said, “My employer did it, so it means I’m legit. It means everything is right about my claim, so why am I waiting.”
Hamden is also a union steward at Unite Here Local 737. The union is now speaking out saying that of the 19,000 members that work in food, beverage and housekeeping for Disney, only 2,000 are back to work. Out of employees furloughed, the union estimates that 30% of them have still not received anything in the way of unemployment benefits.
In Hamdan’s case, he checks the site regularly for an unemployment update and says his account has simply said “Pending” for the past few months. Hamden is now worried that many cast members who haven’t received benefits will be called back before receiving anything and then become exempt missing out on thousands of dollars in back payments.
You can check out the complete story form WESH below:
This is a story that we’ll continue to follow closely here on MickeyBlog. Keeping checking back in with us for the latest news and updates.
Source: WESH