Warner Bros. Discovery makes $1,200 payment to ‘significant’ number of UK and Irish employees to help with cost of living crisis

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) is making a one-off payment of £1,000 ($1,200) to many of its UK and Irish employees to help combat the cost of living crisis.

All WBD core staff earning less than £60,000 ($73,000) received the one-off lump sum payment and will get free lunch and other benefits once a week until April, we are told. The move will not affect staff hired for production, so staff at WBD Television’s UK affiliates such as Wall to Wall and Twenty Twenty will not benefit.

WBD declined to say how many would benefit from the measures, saying they would affect a “significant number of workers”.

The UK’s cost of living crisis is tough and media companies are struggling with how to help their lower paid workers as inflation soars.

Sky gave 70% of its staff a £1,000 bonus over two installments, the second of which landed in bank accounts this month. WBD will be paid in one installment.

“We want to help those hardest hit by inflation and will pay eligible staff a living allowance on base salaries of less than £60,000 a year,” WBD wrote in an email to staff seen by Deadline Was.

An insider described the local reaction to the bonus as “extremely positive, many juniors could hardly believe their eyes, all super happy and relieved”.

In a statement, a spokesperson for WBD said: “We are committed to supporting our employees in the UK and Ireland and this is just one step we are taking. In addition to financial contributions, we also offer all employees access to a range of initiatives, including free lunches and a variety of discounts on essential items. We continue to look for ways to provide support that can really improve the daily cost of living.”

For WBD, the payment provides much-needed positive internal and external publicity after a year of budget cuts and restructuring that followed the Warner Bros. merger. and Discovery, some of which affected operations outside the United States.