Universal Orlando Announces It Will Auto-Enroll Their Furloughed Employees Into Florida's Unemployment System

States across the nation have felt mounting pressure on their unemployment systems in recent weeks. In Florida, the conversation of an auto-enrollment program has been brought up with Governor Ron DeSantis, highlighting the need to lessen the burden on both the furloughed employees as well as the state system itself.

©Universal/Comcast

Spectrum News 13 reported that Universal will be automatically enrolling furloughed employees into Florida’s state unemployment system, effective May 3rd, 2020.

Universal previously announced that they would furlough their part-time, hourly employees starting on May 3rd. When Universal first closed in March, their employees were to be paid through April 19th, which was their original reopening date. When it was announced that their closure was extended indefinitely (through at least May 31st), Universal said they “made the difficult decision…to furlough our part-time hourly workers beginning May 3.”

Hogwarts Castle

Disney World announced in early April they would furlough their hourly non-union Cast Members on April 19th. Since then, Disney has reached several other furlough agreements with various unions representing the majority of their Cast Members, also effective April 19th. Many furloughed Cast Members expressed frustration with the difficulty in enrolling in Florida’s unemployment system, which ultimately led to some staging at-home protests.

As it became more and more clear that the system was not built to support the overwhelming demand, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis allocated thousands of additional employees to the Department of Economic Opportunity. In Florida, those who qualify for state unemployment can have their lost income supplemented up to a total of $275 weekly.

Spaceship Earth

DeSantis pointed out that an auto-enrollment feature would not give priority to those employees or give them a special spot in line, but it would ease the burden on an already overwhelmed system.