Companies continue to cut jobs
Companies bereft of revenue continue to slash positions and pay for both executives and employees.
• Hertz is laying off about 10,000 employees in North America with vacations and business travel on hold. The layoffs cross all divisions within the company, and began last week
• NPR is cutting its CEO’s pay by 25 percent and that of other executives by 10 percent to 15 percent. The organization says that its priority is to preserve jobs.
• Chuy’s: Preliminary sales figures from Chuy’s Holdings Inc. show the blow the coronavirus has dealt to its finances and its workforce. The Austin-based Tex-Mex restaurant chain on Tuesday said it expects a firstquarter same-store sales decline of 9.7 percent. The company said it has temporarily suspended the payment of rent on operating leases and is negotiating rent concessions, abatements and deferrals with landlords.
Chuy’s said it has furloughed 80 percent of its hourly workers, about 40 percent of store management and 40 percent of corporate and administrative staff, and has made temporary salary cuts for those remaining. Senior management salaries have been reduced by 50 percent to 75 percent, the company said.
• Gamestop is temporarily cutting wages between 10 percent and 30 percent and giving employees the option to work half time for half the pay, or be furloughed. Thousands of employees are part of the wage cuts and furloughs, but GameStop, which operates 5,500 stores in 14 countries, wouldn’t say how many. GameStop has 14,000 full-time employees and between 22,000 and 42,000 parttime hourly employees worldwide, depending on the time of the year. The Grapevine-based video game retailer is also beginning to reopen some stores and said curbside sales in the U.S. have been strong.
• Mar-a-Lago: President Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida is temporarily laying off 153 workers after halting business last month as a result of mandated closures issued in South Florida. The Trump National Doral Miami resort where Trump initially wanted to host this year’s Group of Seven summit also has temporarily laid off 560 workers.
Speaking at the White House Tuesday, Trump said, “You can’t have many hundreds of employees standing around doing nothing,” noting that local social distancing prohibitions have closed clubs, hotels and even golf courses. “There’s no customer. You’re not allowed to have a customer.”