Disney Allegedly Colluded to Replace U.S. Workers With Immigrants
The New York Times reports that two employees laid off by Disney have filed lawsuits in federal court against Disney and two global consulting companies alleging that the employer brought in foreign workers to replace them. “They claim the companies colluded to break the law by using temporary H-1B visas to bring in immigrant workers, knowing that Americans would be displaced.”
Two similar but separate lawsuits were filed. Here is the complaint in one of the suits. The suits are putative class actions and the plaintiffs seek to represent other laid off employees.
Layoffs last January brought to light other episodes in which American workers, mainly in technology but also in accounting and administration, claimed to have lost jobs to foreigners on H-1B visas. The foreign workers, mostly from India, were provided by outsourcing companies.
The Labor Department has open investigations of outsourcing companies — the direct employers of the temporary immigrants — at Disney and at Southern California Edison, a utility that laid off hundreds of American workers in 2014. A number of former Disney workers also filed complaints alleging discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
H-1B visas bring foreign workers with special skills into the country. The Department of Labor must certify that the workers’ employment “will not adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed.”
KJ