Disney CEO Bob Iger announces the start of job terminations of 7,000 workers

Walt Disney Company previously revealed its plans to reduce its total workforce, and now the job terminations are officially starting. The company’s chief executive officer, Bob Iger, personally announced the start of the layoffs that will affect about 7,000 employees.

Walt Disney’s CEO said on Monday, March 27, that they would let go of the workers starting this week, and this will be the first in the three-round cycle. The job cuts were first mentioned in February.

Iger let the staff know about the start of the terminations by releasing a memo. He told them that the process of sending notifications to impacted workers had now begun. The second and last round of layoffs will happen in the next couple of months.

As per CNN Business, the American mass media and entertainment company headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California, said that the decision to reduce its global workforce is part of its multibillion-dollar cost-cutting plan, which is aimed at boosting the company’s business operations in this time when the media sector is in turmoil.

While it was the company’s chief who announced that workers would be let go starting this week, it will be the managers who will directly notify the affected staff in their units. In the second wave of the cuts, a larger number is expected to be told to leave, and this will happen in April.

For the third and last round, it will take place right before the start of the summer. The remaining employees included in the 7,000 people to be eliminated are set to be laid off.

“This week, we begin notifying employees whose positions are impacted by the company’s workforce reductions. On March 27, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger wrote in the notice that was published by The Hollywood Reporter. “Leaders will be communicating the news directly to the first group of impacted employees over the next four days.”

He added, “The difficult reality of many colleagues and friends leaving Disney is not something we take lightly. In tough moments, we must always do what is required to ensure Disney can continue delivering exceptional entertainment to audiences and guests around the world – now, and long into the future.”

Photo by: Lydia Turner/Unsplash