Hyatt Regency Greenwich laying off 41 workers

The Hyatt Regency Greenwich plans to cut 39 positions by the end of the month, bringing its total of October layoffs to 41.

“In response to the unprecedented decline in travel demand we have seen across the globe, we have had to take significant actions that have deeply impacted our operations and colleagues at Hyatt Regency Greenwich,” General Manager Sherry Hicks-Buckles wrote to the state Labor Department.

“Unfortunately, as a result, we have made the extremely difficult decision to implement layoffs across our hotel workforce,” she added. “While we have made significant cost-cutting measures in an effort to avoid this scenario, ultimately, additional measures were necessary to secure the hotel’s long-term viability.”

The 39 positions, which include 11 room attendants, eight cooks, and six event servers, will be eliminated on Oct. 31. On Oct. 10, the hotel laid off a front office host and a sales systems administrator.

The Hyatt had temporarily laid off or furloughed 152 employees on March 24 when it closed due to the Covid-19 crisis. Upon reopening on July 1, Hicks-Buckles told the Business Journal the hotel was taking a “methodical approach” to bringing back many of those employees.

“When we began to see encouraging signs that our economy could start to reopen again in some areas, we returned some of our layoff employees back to active status,” she wrote to the Labor Department.

“We were hopeful of a potential economic upturn and return to ”˜normal”™ business operations with the slowly reopening economy. However, it has now become apparent that there will be longer-term revenue impacts on our industry as a result of lower than expected occupancy rates and unexpected deteriorating business conditions related to the spread of the virus.”

The affected employees will retain layoff status “for an indefinite period of time,” she wrote.