Disney took away this man's fairy tale ending

[disneydad78]

I hope this is fake, Im loosing clients due to this video.

Can someone please tell me its a hoax.

Thanks

 

[BigAlsGal]

I hope this is fake, Im loosing clients due to this video.

Can someone please tell me its a hoax.

Thanks

Yeah that was awhile ago I believe. I'm not sure all the details but I'm wanting to say there was legal action taken against Disney and they ended up rehiring some? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm really just repeating what I heard.

 

[pork]

It happened. You can dig around a get the exact number. I think it was around 250 people and they rehired or reassigned a decent percentage.

Its always been my experience that this happens all over the place in IT. I was a little baffled this made the news when countless other companies use the same practice.

 

[rteetz]

This is true. But it's also common other companies do it too.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Where I work, our corporate IT department went from three floors full of people to 1. Our local IT went from sixteen to three. Our systems went from many to a few. Was a market correction.

 

[CinderellasKastle]

I knew this was true, but never saw this video. Heartbreaking.

 

[soniam]

It's pathetic and "criminal", but it happens often. I don't have a problem with companies fairly hiring H1B Visas. Some of my best coworkers are on a visa. However, the retraining thing is cruel, especially when it's for money that Disney knows the soon-to-be-out-of-a-job employee needs However, this is old news.

 

[JaxDad]

I believe the intent of the H1B Visa program is to temporarily bring in foreign specialized workers when such U.S. workers are not available. Disney and other companies have been accused of using it to just cut costs. They have available specialized workers--at Disney they were already on the payroll-but they still use the H1B program to bring in lower-wage foreign workers. (They are generally lower-wage, because they are often younger, entry-level workers, so there is an age discrimination element to this too.) Using the laid-off workers to then train the replacements is another odious aspect of this.

The video, I think, is from a Senate hearing held just last week. The layoffs happened last year sometime. The guy in the video and at least one other former Disney IT worker have filed a class-action suit for abuse of the H1B program. I THINK the suit may actually be against a Disney sub-contractor, but Disney may have been named as well. It is still ongoing.

If you don't understand why this is still in the news, albeit somewhat suppressed, you're just not paying attention...

 

[TheWGP]

I've followed this case with interest as an attorney, because it is one of the best documented cases of H1B abuse out there. The requirements of the H1B program include that the employer attest that the position does not displace a US worker within 90 days before or after the H1B petition. There are other attestations required that are usually treated as pro forma by the firms typically used to facilitate H1B employee provision.

Sadly, everyone above is correct - a lot of companies do this and abuse it. That does not make it legal - just like fudging on your taxes is not okay but lots of people do it, many without attracting notice. This case makes Disney look horrible, but only because this is how companies save money with H1B's. Disney is, after all, just another large corporation with a duty to its shareholders to squeeze every penny out of customers and employees that they can, which in many companies amounts to "by any means necessary so long as the odds of getting busted aren't too high."

The moral of the story is that yes, Disney did some awful stuff, and yes, if the case plays out as seems likely, they are going to pay out the nose for it - but this case could have happened to many large companies. It's not anything unique or personal to Disney. Disney just happened to be the one where it is all super well documented so they're getting nailed in court. Other companies are likely already quietly shaping up their compliance and the word is certainly out that the odds of getting busted have gone up.

Just as a note, if one stopped doing business with large companies that have done bad things, one would have to do business with very few corporations at all. That's just the nature of the beast.

 

[VegasMike]

I've followed this case with interest as an attorney, because it is one of the best documented cases of H1B abuse out there. The requirements of the H1B program include that the employer attest that the position does not displace a US worker within 90 days before or after the H1B petition. There are other attestations required that are usually treated as pro forma by the firms typically used to facilitate H1B employee provision.

Sadly, everyone above is correct - a lot of companies do this and abuse it. That does not make it legal - just like fudging on your taxes is not okay but lots of people do it, many without attracting notice. This case makes Disney look horrible, but only because this is how companies save money with H1B's. Disney is, after all, just another large corporation with a duty to its shareholders to squeeze every penny out of customers and employees that they can, which in many companies amounts to "by any means necessary so long as the odds of getting busted aren't too high."

The moral of the story is that yes, Disney did some awful stuff, and yes, if the case plays out as seems likely, they are going to pay out the nose for it - but this case could have happened to many large companies. It's not anything unique or personal to Disney. Disney just happened to be the one where it is all super well documented so they're getting nailed in court. Other companies are likely already quietly shaping up their compliance and the word is certainly out that the odds of getting busted have gone up.

Just as a note, if one stopped doing business with large companies that have done bad things, one would have to do business with very few corporations at all. That's just the nature of the beast.

Yes indeed ! But wouldn't that be a great thing for those few companies !
My guess is it would inspire more to do the same as the money rolls in.

 

[Josh Hendy]

You can still enjoy Disney movies and theme parks. You should take to heart the moral lessons of the great stories and characters. The creative people are not the scumbags who conspire with the government to deceive the public.

But absolutely, you should call out the corporation for its dishonesty and tell them as loudly as you want, WFT are you doing acting like a bunch of greedy rats.

"Other people do it" is not an excuse for robbing banks and it's not an excuse for any other criminal act. Such as, lying on federal visa application forms. Ask yourself, "What would Stitch do? Or Mr. Incredible?" And don't forget to lay some of the blame at the original source of the fraud, the government scumbags who only pretend to be running the country in the public interest.

 

[Roxyfire]

This same thing happened to a former classmate of mine several years ago. He was in-house IT for a major hotel chain that had his whole department changed over to H1B visa holders. He was kept on as a contractor while expected to train his replacement. I always wondered how they could actually get away with doing this considering they had people on staff at the time. It sounds like Disney did something similar but actually caught heat for it.

 

[PBB]

I hope this is fake, Im loosing clients due to this video.

Can someone please tell me its a hoax.

Thanks

Unfortunately, this is not a hoax. This is a good example of how Disney stopped being the Walt Disney Company. It was sad to read and hear the toll that these firings have taken upon these employees and their families. These people did nothing but show up every day and work hard in which they received great performance reviews and accolades from their supervisors. They were compensated fairly by Disney and out of nowhere they were blindsided by corporate greed.

i have to admit I have been troubled at how political the company has become under Bob Iger. There seems to be an overt political agenda in play. Management seems to remember that "It Was All Started By A Mouse". I guess Walt should have been more specific that ...... "It Was All Started By A U.S. Mouse".

 

[Eoghann]

Unfortunately, this is not a hoax. This is a good example of how Disney stopped being the Walt Disney Company. It was sad to read and hear the toll that these firings have taken upon these employees and their families. These people did nothing but show up every day and work hard in which they received great performance reviews and accolades from their supervisors. They were compensated fairly by Disney and out of nowhere they were blindsided by corporate greed.

i have to admit I have been troubled at how political the company has become under Bob Iger. There seems to be an overt political agenda in play. Management seems to remember that "It Was All Started By A Mouse". I guess Walt should have been more specific that ...... "It Was All Started By A U.S. Mouse".

Actually it's not political at all and it's not Disney per se, it's the whole corporate culture in the US (and other countries).

Money... Profit... Return on Sale... Growth... Cashflow... Stock Price...

Yes there is usually at least token references to Greening and Diversity and Engagement but the words above are all any large companies truly care about. Employees are a renewable resource.

Though once again an I'll note the disturbing Xenophobia that surfaces in these discussions. It is irrelevant what country the new hires came from. If Disney could have got workers that cheap who were US citizens they would have done. Cheap jobs is pretty much the dominant culture over here already. Walmart is the largest employer in 20 States!

 

[JaxDad]

It is irrelevant what country the new hires came from.

It's absolutely relevant, because the lawsuit is specifically for abuse of the H1B visa program.

 

[Eoghann]

It's absolutely relevant, because the lawsuit is specifically for abuse of the H1B visa program.

It's relevant to the lawsuit not to the criticism of the companies behavior... unless you're arguing that it's fine for Disney to dump workers and have them train their cheaper replacements, just so long as those replacements are American.

 

[JaxDad]

I'm not "arguing" anything.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I worked in one of three command centers for a large company that had offices all over North America and the company decided to consolidate them into one new one. We were all given our notice and were forced to train our replacements as well. The consolation for us however, was that we had developed several programs that cut out a ton of tedious work every day, giving us time to work on the important stuff. Somehow, those programs didn't quite make their way over to our replacements, no idea what happened there!

 

[PBB]

Actually it's not political at all and it's not Disney per se, it's the whole corporate culture in the US (and other countries).

Money... Profit... Return on Sale... Growth... Cashflow... Stock Price...

Yes there is usually at least token references to Greening and Diversity and Engagement but the words above are all any large companies truly care about. Employees are a renewable resource.

Though once again an I'll note the disturbing Xenophobia that surfaces in these discussions. It is irrelevant what country the new hires came from. If Disney could have got workers that cheap who were US citizens they would have done. Cheap jobs is pretty much the dominant culture over here already. Walmart is the largest employer in 20 States!

Xenophobia?? Really?? When a corporation takes US taxpayer dollars, was started in the US and a majority of its shareholders are US Citizens people tend to believe you should have loyalty to US workers. This has nothing to do with a prejudice towards the foreign worker. If they want to become US Citizens and apply for a job at Disney......Great! I worked on the HK Disneyland project and we had to get the proper documentation and visas form the HK government to work there. This was negotiated by Disney. We were there as Temporary Workers who had specialized skills that people in HK did not possess. After we completed our tasks we were on an airplane back to US. We did not displace anyone currently working in HK. There is a big difference between temporary and replace permanent workers with non citizens for the reason of it being cheaper.

 

[TheGecko]

This stuff happens everyday. My last company eliminated an entire in house department and then brought in contract replacements doing the same exact job the next day. The job never went away, but the on the book headcount did. The contractors were considered special project employees. In the past these special short term contracts turn into years and years of revolving people doing jobs which are supposed to be direct according to labor law. The permanent jobs are never posted, and the replacement folks never receive proper benefits.

This is one of the reason's I have decided against working direct for big companies (Fortune 100/500). They are fine to have as clients, but every year of my working career it has gotten worse and worse. Benefits cut, workers cut, pensions cut/frozen, jobs combined, inconsistent raises even for high performance.