Founders Brewing Company is planning to temporarily lay off 163 employees during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter submitted to the State of Michigan, the brewery said the layoffs will begin May 3 at the Grand Rapids Taproom and Company store and Detroit Taproom, which are temporarily closed tap rooms.
The company said they expect the layoffs to be temporary and last six months, but can't predict the duration because of the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit our business and industry hard. Founders has been very fortunate to have continued paying our retail teams since we closed our tap rooms on March 13th," said Mike Stevens, CEO, Founders Brewing Co., in a statement. "However, this week we announced the difficult decision to furlough those team members starting May 3rd until we have better clarity on where we as a business, and society, go from here. We did not take this decision lightly and hope to bring back our furloughed staff as soon as possible."
The temporary furlough impacts hourly, retail staff, the company said adding that the employees have been paid their average number of hours worked since the tap rooms closed in March due to the pandemic.
Health insurance will continue for those employees impacted, and no one outside of the company's retail staff have been furloughed.
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