Just a day after the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia 76ers promptly reversed course after catching flak for implementing a 20 percent reduction on employee salaries, the Boston Bruins’ ownership group apparently didn’t read the room.
Delaware North, the global food service and hospitality company led by Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon — announcing that 150 total employees of the Bruins and TD Garden would either be placed on temporary leave or face a reduced salary due to the economic impact caused from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Here is the full statement:
Delaware North today announced temporary business stabilization measures relating to Boston Bruins and TD Garden full-time salaried associates due to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our operations.
Effective April 1, 2020, 68 of our full-time salaried associates will be placed on temporary leave, receiving one week of paid leave and eight weeks of full benefits. Additionally, as of April 1, 2020, 82 of our full-time salaried associates will receive an indefinite salary reduction. Those associates not impacted by the temporary leave or salary reduction have employment contracts.
As relayed to our associates today, none of these decisions were reached without difficult and painful deliberations. These measures are intended to be temporary with associate employment and compensation returning once our business resumes to its normal state from this unprecedented stoppage.
“The Jacobs Family has established a $1.5 million fund for the Boston Bruins and TD Garden part-time gameday associates who will be financially burdened if the six remaining regular season Bruins games are not played. We thank our associates for their patience and understanding while we worked through the complexity of this unprecedented situation.”
