PROVIDENCE – Two companies in Rhode Island have filed notices with the state of Rhode Island that they had laid off a combined 231 employees, according to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training website.
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notices are required to be filed with the state in the case of mass layoffs. Companies are required to file if the employers with 100 or more full-time workers closes a facility or discontinue an operating unit with 50 or more workers; they are also required to file if they lay off 50-499 workers and these workers comprise at least 33% of the total workforce at a single site of employment. Employer are also required to file a WARN notice if they lay off 500 or more workers at a single site of employment.
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AJ Capital Partners, owner and operator of the Graduate Providence hotel, said that it had laid off 121 union workers in Providence, effective March 22, impacting members of Unite Here Local 26. The Graduate Providence is one of several Rhode Island hotels that have temporarily closed.
HMSHost, an operator of airport restaurants and other businesses, including businesses in T.F. Green Airport, filed a notice saying it had laid off 110 union workers in Warwick, also of Unite Here Local 26, effective from March 16 through April 2.
Neither business was closing operations in the state, according to the DLT.
The two WARN notices are the first such filings since the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt in Rhode Island.
Also on Monday, Gannett Co., the parent company of many local newspapers, including The Providence Journal, informed staffers that it would be cutting working hours by 25% for staff earning over $38,000 for three months.
The cuts will come in work-week-length furloughs of employees once a month for three months.
The news organization cited a reduction of advertisers and sponsors eliminating market spending as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for the cuts.
An FAQ distributed to staff, acquired by Poynter, elaborated on the impact to workers. Workers will still receive health and insurance benefits, and accrue vacation time. The FAQ did advise that workers that were furloughed for more than one consecutive month may be sent an invoice for applicable benefit deductions.
Poynter also reported that Gannett CEO Paul Bascobert was forgoing an annual salary and that executives at the company had taken a 25% pay cut, as part of cost cutting measures.
