The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC filed a notice with state and local officials reporting temporary layoffs or reductions in hours for 638 of the 649 employees at its Amelia Island resort hotel.
The Ritz-Carlton, which filed its notice June 2, joins two other major Northeast Florida hotels that filed layoff notices in the first week of June under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Downtown, the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa and the Ritz-Carlton filed their notices before the Republican National Committee announced June 11 that the Republican National Convention is being moved to Jacksonville.
All three hotels are likely to receive a large number of visitors during the Aug. 24-27 convention.
The Ritz-Carlton’s WARN letter was addressed to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and also to Fernandina Beach Mayor Johnny Miller. However, it addressed Miller at “City Hall @ St. James Building” in Downtown Jacksonville.
The letter said the resort’s temporary actions began on March 28 as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the number of visitors to the hotel.
The Ritz-Carlton said it expects business to return to normal within six months.
However, the pandemic’s continued impact “now makes it reasonably foreseeable that these temporary actions may extend beyond six months.”
The Sawgrass Marriott in Ponte Vedra Beach used the same language in its June 3 WARN letter which said it temporarily laid off or reduced the hours of 408 of its 421 employees.
The Hyatt’s June 3 letter said it permanently cut 120 jobs and temporarily laid off 80 employees because of the pandemic.
Those numbers total 1,246 area workers temporarily or permanently laid off or with reduced hours.