More than 125,000 employees at Walt Disney Company across the globe will each receive a $1,000 cash bonus, the company announced Tuesday.

The company will also invest $50 million to help hourly employees pay for college tuition starting with the upcoming fall semester, company chairman and chief executive officer Robert Iger announced Tuesday. Nearly 88,000 employees are eligible.

“I have always believed that education is the key to opportunity; it opens doors and creates new possibilities,” Iger said in a statement. “Matched with the $1,000 cash bonus, these initiatives will have both an immediate and long-term positive impact.”

Several large American companies have planned bonuses for employees recently. More than 67,500 Florida workers at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club will get paid $105.7 million in increases and bonuses, the company announced earlier this month, while also closing some Sam’s locations. Orlando-based Darden Restaurants said earlier this month the new GOP tax cut will prompt it to spend an additional $20 million on its 175,000-plus employees this year, but did not give specifics.

And this week, about 27,000 Universal Parks and Resorts employees, including 18,000 in Orlando, are among 100,000 or so Comcast employees who are receiving $1,000 bonuses. Comcast, which owns Universal Orlando parent NBCUniversal, announced its bonuses in December.

Both theme park companies said the extra money for employees came at least in part from the tax cut that reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Comcast also cited “the FCC’s action on broadband” as a factor.

A financial analyst said Disney’s decision to give out bonuses wasn’t unexpected, as the multi-billion dollar company stands to save hundreds of millions of dollars from the new tax bill.

The money for bonuses “are a drop in the bucket,” said Tuna Amobi, CFRA Research senior analyst. “The financial impact is immaterial. I don’t think investors will be too focused one way or another.”

But it’s also a goodwill gesture to workers, especially after back-and-forth union contract negotiations, Amobi said.

“This might be another way to appease the workers,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for them to show they are sensitive to the employees.”

Under the new Disney bonuses, all full-time and part-time employees who have worked at Disney since Jan. 1 are eligible for the money — which will be split in two payments in March and September, a news release said. The employees can be hourly, salaried or tipped, but not executives.

For the program to help employees pay for school, Disney will give $50 million initially and then pay up to $25 million annually in future years.

“With this new plan, participants can pursue qualifying higher education or vocational training, including courses unrelated to their current responsibilities at Disney,” according to the release.

No other details were immediately available.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after Walt Disney World union members overwhelmingly rejected the company’s contract proposal Dec. 20, 2017. Disney’s offer would have given full-time and part-time employees a 3 percent or a 50-cent raise — whichever was higher — retroactive to Sept. 24, 2017, and again this September. Disney also proposed a one-time $200 bonus for full-time employees and those who get tips.

Two locals representing Disney World employees said in a statement Tuesday the $1,000 bonus was not related to the ongoing labor negotiations.

“Unionized Cast Members in Orlando are bargaining for real raises that make a lasting impact … ” according to a statement from Unite Here 362 and 737, which were part of a coalition of six unions that represents about 36,000 Disney employees.

The timing of the bonus during the labor negotiations confused some employees who didn’t understand if it was related, said Madeline Johnson, who works at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Johnson planned to spend her money on college tuition. The 23-year-old Davenport resident pays her way at University of Central Florida on her $11 per hour theme park job.

“A bonus is great,” Johnson said, although she added, “It’s a very small piece of the puzzle.”

Source: Gabrielle Russon
Orlando Sentinel