LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — United Talent Agency became the first of the majors to announce that staff salaries, which were cut as a cost-saving measure in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, will be fully reinstated.
In a memo sent to staff and obtained by CelebrityAccess, UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer wrote: “Effective two weeks from now, on September 16, we will fully reinstate salaries for all of our colleagues.”
Zimmer went on to note that UTA also plans to provide “meaningful increases” in base pay for the agency’s cadre of assistants, and hourly-compensated support staff.
While most employees at the agency can expect a return to full pay, Zimmer, as well as the agency’s co-presidents David Kramer and Jay Sures, will continue to forgo their pay entirely, according to a source at UTA.
At the same time, UTA announced plans for a round of staff layoffs at multiple offices around the world. The layoffs will affect about 50 staffers, and include both active and furloughed employees, Zimmer said.
Additionally, UTA staff who were affected by company-wide furloughs in May, are still in limbo.
“As for our other furloughed colleagues, we are not able to reinstate them at this time and, given the continued uncertainty, we can’t yet set any expectations about when that might happen. The most important thing we can do right now is continue to manage UTA carefully, deliberately and day-by-day. Tomorrow we’ll hold an All UTA meeting to discuss all this,”
The layoffs were first reported by IQ Magazine.
