Bruins, Delaware North Announce Temporary Layoffs And Indefinite Pay Cuts

The Boston Bruins and Delaware North announced Wednesday that as of April 1, they are putting 68 full-time salaried associates on temporary leave with one week of paid leave and eight weeks of full benefits. In addition, 82 full-time salaried associates will be hit with an indefinite salary reduction. Anyone that has an employment contract will not fall under these cost-saving measures being made as a result of the Coronavirus impact. 

Here’s the full statement from Delaware North and the Bruins:

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.

This past Saturday, the Jacobs family – who owns Delaware North and the Bruins – announced a $1.5 million ‘Workers Fund’ that will pay part-time Bruins game-day staff if the final six regular season home games are canceled. According to their press release Saturday though, if the NHL season is canceled, these workers would not be paid for the two regular season games they already missed and for the guaranteed two home playoff games the Bruins would’ve played. The Bruins were the final team to announce a compensation plan for game-day staff and just one of two teams, along with the Buffalo Sabres to add the cancellation clause in. 

“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.”

The NHL paused the 2019-20 season on March 12 due to the rapid spread of COVID19 and the subsequent government measures and restrictions on social gatherings. After asking the players to remain in their NHL cities and self-quarantine until March 27, the league decided last week that given new and longer social distancing and public gathering recommendations from the CDC, that the players should return to their native cities and countries. The NHL still provided some hope that the 2019-20 season won’t be canceled saying they would continue to provide high-level guidance on the potential of opening a training camp period roughly 45 days into the 60-day period covered by the CDC’s directive. However, per TSN on Tuesday, the league extended the self-quarantine until April 6. They also asked every NHL team to submit all available August dates at their respective arenas, should the season be resumed.