Marriott Furloughs Two-Thirds of Its Employees; CEO Calls Coronavirus Impact ‘Worse Than 9/11 and 2009 Financial Crisis Combined’
Marriott International, Inc., the world’s largest hotel company, announced on Sunday that it would furlough two-thirds of its workforce due to economic pressures from the coronavirus pandemic.
The furlough will include two-thirds of the 4,000 employees at Marriott’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland and two-thirds of the 174,000 employees around the world, according to a report by Fox News.
The furloughed employees will be paid only 20 percent of their regular salary, and even non-furloughed employees are facing significantly reduced pay and work hours.
The company’s current plan is for the furlough to last 90 days, beginning in April, with the hope to bring the employees back on board as the pandemic threat fades and global travel resumes again, but that is not guaranteed.
Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson posted a video message to associates earlier in the week, introducing it as “the most difficult video message we’ve ever put together.”
Sorenson, who is currently battling pancreatic cancer, announced a number of top-level corporate cuts. He and Marriott Executive Chairman Bill Marriott will not receive salaries for 2020 and the rest of the senior executive team is taking a 50 percent pay cut.
The coronavirus pandemic has had a “more severe and sudden financial impact on our business than 9/11 and the 2009 financial crisis combined,” said Sorenson.
