ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World officials asked some of their workers Monday to volunteer for a 20 percent cutback in hours and salary.

        The company wants 7,400 full time employees to scale back their work week to 32 hours, saying it will save some jobs and preserve insurance and retirement benefits for employees, spokeswoman Marilyn Waters said.

        Waters said the voluntary work reductions were “an opportunity” to employees “because some people would like to do that for lifestyle reasons.”

        Disney also fired an unspecified number of highly paid contract workers in its technology department on Monday and reduced the hours of some attractions, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

        Work schedules for about 40,000 hourly employees had been reduced after the Sept. 11 attacks that devastated the tourism industry. About 1,000 salaried Disney World workers in California and Orlando were laid off before Sept. 11.

        The offer of voluntary reductions was made only to Orlando-area workers, not to those in California. Orlando's theme park has been hit harder by the drop in tourism because it relies more on visitors who traveled on airplanes.

        Other cost-cutting measures were also taken. Some live shows will be eliminated on certain days, including MGM Studios' Beauty and the Beast, and the hours of a handful of attractions at Epcot were reduced.

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