Disney Sued for Allegedly Replacing American Workers with Foreigners

The lawsuits by Perrero and Moore, who each filed a separate but similar complaint on Monday, represent the first time Americans have gone to federal court to sue both outsourcing companies that imported immigrants and the USA company that contracted with those businesses, claiming that they collaborated intentionally to supplant Americans with H-1B workers.

Blackwell says her clients, Leo Perrero and Dena Moore, were among 250 tech workers laid off by Disney past year.

The tech workers said they were told they had 90 days to train their replacements with foreign workers with H-1B visas for high-skilled workers.

In their suit, the two allege if they didn’t train their replacements, they would not have received bonuses or severance. They also said the company opened more positions than it closed, but Moore, who applied for 150 other jobs at Disney was unable to bag a single one. She said that Disney is not the only company using outsourcing companies to hire immigrants to replace U.S. workers, said The Hindu report. Disney has not responded to the allegations.

Disney said that it complies with all applicable employment laws and noted that hundred of employees use H-1B visas.

Over the last few months of the year, the employees had to train their replacements to do the job they had lost.

One of the plaintiffs, Perrero, recently was featured in an ad by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes any increase in H-1B visas.

By law, H-1B visa holders can not replace American workers.

Those employees who were laid off were encouraged to apply for other jobs at the company, but hardly any were re-hired.

The suit claims the contractors, HCL and Cognizant, falsified documents and violated H-1B contract terms which state the working conditions of similarly situated workers would not be negatively affected – and notably, that U.S. workers would not lose their jobs.

Attorney Sara Blackwell says the lawsuits, which claim class-action status, are meant to “kick [outsourcing companies] at their business model, to stop them from systemically abusing the immigration system”, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Disney said in a statement that the lawsuits are based on an unsustainable legal theory and are a misrepresentation of the facts.

“To me, that’s a blatant lie, because their working conditions are being adversely affected to the worst extent possible because they were fired”, Blackwell said.

And Mr Perrero said: “We want to show America that this is what’s happening right under your nose”. Some companies offer as much as $20,000 for this.

A Disney spokesperson did not have immediate comment Monday.