Coronavirus brings layoffs to Idaho vacation rental, theater, construction workers
A vacation rental company with Idaho ties has laid off an unspecified number of employees as the coronavirus pandemic has brought vacation cancellations and fewer bookings.
A Meridian movie theater and a Meridian construction company say they, too, have laid off workers because of a drop in business.
Vacasa, a Portland company founded in 2009 by former Boise resident Eric Breon, became a major player in the vacation rental management industry, amassing $500 million in outside financing and managing 25,000 rentals with a staff of 6,000.
“To preserve the longevity of our business, we have to make proactive and significant cost adjustments, including staffing changes across the organization,” Vacasa said in a statement. “We have had to reduce hours for some employees, and lay off others.”
A company spokeswoman who asked not to be named would not say how many employees have been laid off. The Portland Business Journal reported the layoffs could number hundreds across the globe. About 200 people worked in Vacasa’s Boise office at 999 W. Main St. and about 100 worked elsewhere across Idaho.
The virus that causes COVID-19 has brought the travel industry to a near-standstill. Thirty-eight states have ordered residents to remain home, and the business for vacation rentals has dried up as families look to protect themselves.
“The unprecedented global health crisis of COVID-19 is having a severe and sudden impact on businesses of all sizes,” Vacasa said in a statement. “We are not immune to its devastation at Vacasa.”
Interim CEO Matt Roberts, former CEO of OpenTable, the restaurant reservation platform, has agreed to work for no pay through the end of the year. He took the reins of the company after Breon stepped down.
Other executives took a 50% pay cut.
“We know this crisis will eventually pass,” Vacasa said. “When it does, people will desperately need to connect and travel. Vacasa will be ready to provide the quality vacation rental experiences they’ve come to expect.”
Closed Meridian movie theater lays off its staff
Meridian’s Majestic Cinemas, bought last summer by Dallas-based Cinemark, the nation’s third-largest theater owner with 4,518 screens, laid off 45 theater workers March 26.
The layoffs, which include 17 ushers, 15 concession workers, nine assistant managers, three ticket sellers and a maintenance worker, will be permanent, Sid Srivastava, a Cinemark senior vice president, wrote in a letter to the Idaho Department of Labor under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
Cinemark’s is the first WARN notice to be submitted in Idaho since the pandemic hit. Generally, when companies with 100 or more workers shut down or have mass layoffs, they must file such notices.
They normally must give at least a 60-day notice. That wasn’t possible in this case.
“This notice is being given as soon as possible, but due to the rapidly developing and changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional notice was not feasible,” Srivastava wrote in the letter, which was received Wednesday by the Labor Department and first reported by BoiseDev.com.
The Majestic Cinemas closed March 18, the same week as a number of other Treasure Valley chains.
A spokeswoman for Cinemark did not answer her phone at the company’s headquarters. A recorded message said all of the company’s theaters had closed.
Meridian construction company lets workers go
Engineered Structures Inc. laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
“Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, ESI temporarily laid off a small percentage of our workforce,” Neil Nelson, the company’s president, wrote in an email to the Idaho Statesman. “This was a tough decision, and we feel for the employees and families affected.”
ESI has built a large number of commercial buildings in the Treasure Valley, including Saltzer medical buildings in Meridian and Nampa, the Home2Suites by Hilton hotel under construction in downtown Boise and the Boise State University Center for the Visual Arts. The company hopes to get its laid-off employees back to work as soon as the crisis passes, Nelson said.
Laid-off workers eligible for state benefits, plus $600 per week
Idahoans who have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced because of the coronavirus pandemic are eligible for state unemployment benefits, with a waiver of the traditional one-week waiting period. With the passage by Congress of the CARES Act, self-employed workers, independent contractors and those who are part of the gig economy may also be eligible for benefits.
The CARE Act provides an extra $600 a week on top of state unemployment benefits.
Since Gov. Brad Little issued a state of emergency on March 15, there have been 46,526 unemployment claims filed in Idaho. A record 32,941 people filed claims from March 22-28, twice as many claims as the week before.
