UTA lays off 50 staff, reinstates full pay

United Talent Agency (UTA) is laying off around 50 employees, and reinstating full pay for active staff, according to a memo sent to staff yesterday (2 September).

CEO Jeremy Zimmer wrote in the memo that the agency would be reinstating full pay to employees in the next two weeks, after cutting salaries at the beginning of the pandemic, but would also be laying off 50 staffers.

The lay-offs will affect both current and some furloughed employees across several divisions and IQ understands that agents across all UTA offices worldwide, including its London-based European operation, will be affected.

“Our business is recovering, but the need remains to take a hard and honest look at the size and makeup of UTA—and make decisions that reflect what our business requires not just short term but for the foreseeable future,” reads the memo from Zimmer.

“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,” it continues.

“Our business is recovering, but the need remains to take a hard and honest look at the size and makeup of UTA”

It was reported in May that, UTA, which employs more than 1,100 individuals, furloughed 171 staffers in Beverly Hills.

Salary reductions were put in place back in March, prompting Zimmer and co-presidents David Kramer and Jay Sures to announce that they would forgo their 2020 salaries.

The memo also announced that the agency would increase base pay for assistants and hourly-compensated colleagues and the policy for overtime restrictions would be reviewed.

A number of other agencies reduced employee pay, furloughed staff or initiated lay-offs at the beginning of the pandemic.

Paradigm Talent Agency is known to have laid off some 250 staff in the early days of the outbreak, while CAA, UTA and APA all reduced employee pay. While WME’s parent company, Endeavor, laid off around 250 non-agents, including gardeners and restaurant workers, in late March.

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