Former IT workers at Disney have filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that American workers are being discriminated against in favour of hiring H-1B visa workers from overseas.
ComputerWorld reports that following an announcement by Disney in October 2014 that the company would be using an offshore outsourcing firm for future hiring, tensions between workers and Disney became strained. The company began hiring South Asian workers at a rapid pace, and some current Disney workers were forced to begin training their H-1B visa worker replacements.
In January of 2015 nearly 250 Disney IT workers were laid off, leading 30 of those former Disney employees to file a lawsuit in the US District Court of Orlando.
The lawsuit alleges that American Disney worker were discriminated against on the basis of their nation of origin and race. Sara Blackwell, the attorney representing the former employees, said that the workers “lost their jobs when their jobs were outsourced to contracting companies. And those companies brought in mostly, or virtually all, non-American national origin workers.” The lawsuit further claims that the IT workers contracts were terminated “based solely on their national origin and race, replacing them with Indian nationals.”
Responding to the case, a Disney spokeswoman said, “Like the two other dismissed cases brought by this lawyer, this latest lawsuit is nonsense and we will defend it vigorously.” The spokeswoman was referencing another lawsuit filed in January by two employees against Disney and two IT service contractors, HCL and Cognizant, claiming that there was a conspiracy to displace American workers. However the case was dismissed from court.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart Tech covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com