Walt Disney Company has been sued by its own employees for allegedly not being paid living wages.
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The lawsuit was filed by five employees of the company, with as many as over 400 of its hospitality workers potentially joining. Other affiliates accused include Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. Inc. and SodexoMagic, LLC. The plaintiffs are suing for back wages, restitution, and damages. The attorney representing one of the plaintiffs, Randy Renick, said the final amount to be potentially owed by Disney could be “millions of dollars.” Filed in the California Superior Court, the lawsuit accuses Disney of “unlawful conduct and unfair business practices.”
“A lot of [workers] have to live in their cars, or on people’s couches, because they can’t afford the rent on that wage in the City of Anaheim,” one of the plaintiffs, Kathleen Grace, told the Daily Beast. “It’s really sad to see. A lot of times, they’re choosing to feed their families or put gas in their car to come to work.”
“We shouldn’t have to struggle living paycheck to paycheck,” Grace added. “We all are trying to pay our rent, feed our families, get gas to drive here and there. We shouldn’t have to make the choice between putting gas in our car to get to work and feeding our family.”
Taking center stage in the lawsuit is a November 2018 Anaheim ballot initiative called Measure L. It requires resort employers to pay workers $15 per hour if they were receiving rebates. “Our position is that this is clearly a subsidy,” said Renick.
However, both the City of Anaheim and Disneyland Resort say that the agreement (signed in 1996) to build a $108 million parking garage in question does not fall under the subsidy category.
Liz Jaeger, a spokesperson for Disneyland, told the Los Angeles Times, “We have yet to see the lawsuit, but the union coalition is well aware that the city attorney has previously looked at the issue and clearly stated that Measure L does not apply to the Disneyland Resort.”
The City’s Attorney Robert Fabela issue a report in October 2018 stating that Disney would not fall under Measure L because the bonds on the garage are being paid off by taxes that Disney pays from parking revenues. He said that the parking garage “does not appear to incorporate a direct city subsidy.”
Reference:
- https://www.thedailybeast.com/disney-sued-by-labor-union-for-failing-to-pay-living-wage-employees-have-to-live-in-their-cars
- https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-09/is-the-disneyland-resort-getting-a-city-subsidy-union-lawsuit-pushes-court-to-decide
- https://nypost.com/2019/12/11/disneyland-workers-sue-company-for-failing-to-pay-living-wage/
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