Former Disney IT Workers Claim Discrimination In Lawsuit
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
ORLANDO (CBSMiami/AP) — A group of information technology workers laid off by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts claims they were victims of discrimination.
They say they were forced to train their replacements from India before getting fired.
On Monday, the 30 former IT workers filed a suit against the company in an Orlando federal court. They're seeking punitive damages.
The lawsuit contends that 250 IT workers in Florida were told they would need to train their replacements before they were fired at the end of 2014. Each replacement worker was of Indian origin, and was either brought from overseas or working outside the United States, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges violations of the Older Worker Benefit Protection Act, which protects workers from age discrimination.
Disney managers were "being curt and unprofessional toward plaintiffs but treating the foreign replacements with special treatment," the lawsuit said. "Plaintiffs were subjected to disparate treatment by defendant solely based on race or color and ancestry."
Disney said in a statement, "Like the two other dismissed cases brought by this lawyer, this latest lawsuit is nonsense and we will defend it vigorously."
Two similar lawsuits were previously dismissed by a federal judge this fall. In those lawsuits, two former Disney IT workers alleged the contractors made false statements on the visa forms for the workers who would replace them.
Disney has said the 250 employees were let go under an IT restructuring that shifted its focus to digital and other technologies, and that their work involved skills the company no longer needed. More than 100 of the workers eventually were rehired, the company said.
The lawsuit said the workers applied for other Disney jobs but weren't hired.
The company also said the restructured IT department eventually will be larger than it was and have 300 new jobs for U.S. workers.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)