Disney employees are suing their employers, claiming they were fraudulently persuaded to move from California to Florida to work at a new office campus, but those plans are later scrapped amid a fight between the entertainment giant and Florida’s governor. Ron DeSantis.
In July 2021, Disney Parks chief told California employees that most of its employees would be transferred to the new Orlando campus to consolidate different teams and allow for better collaboration.
As many as 2,000 employees in digital technology, finance and product development departments would be transferred to the campus about 20 miles from the massive Walt Disney World theme park, the company said at the time.
Many employees were reluctant to take this step given their longstanding ties to Southern California and fear of uprooting their families, but Disney encouraged the move by promising a state-of-the-art, centralized workplace and greater affordability in central Florida, according to the class action lawsuit filed earlier this week.
“In short, employees were incentivized to endure a combination of reward and punishment,” the lawsuit said. “An employee can choose to move to a better life in Florida, or alternatively choose not to move and be fired by Disney.”
In late 2021, with large numbers of Disney employees resisting relocation, Disney told them to put their relocation plans on hold. Meanwhile, a group of employees who had decided to move, including the lead plaintiffs, Maria De La Cruz and George Fong, sold their homes in California with the understanding that the company expected them to move, and they bought homes in central Florida. the lawsuit said.
Fong, who works as a creative director of product design, sold his family home that he inherited.
However, in June 2022, Disney leaders told California workers that the opening of the new Orlando campus was being delayed and that they could delay the move until 2026 but were still encouraged to move by 2024.
By then, DeSantis had begun a feud with Disney over the company’s public opposition to a Florida law banning instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. With the help of Republicans in the Florida Legislature, DeSantis revamped the governing district for Walt Disney World and installed his own appointees to the board in early 2023. Before DeSantis’ takeover, the government district had been controlled by Disney supporters for more than five years. decades.
In May 2023, Disney told its employees that plans to open the $1 billion campus in Orlando were being scrapped and that the employees who had moved to Florida could move back to California if they wished.
According to the lawsuit, many of the employees who moved to Florida were concerned about their job security if they did not move back to California since most of their team members were still there and the company did not have the facilities in Florida to support the teams to house. .
After the decision to pull the plug on the Orlando campus, home prices around the campus fell and California home prices continued to rise, just as mortgage rates also trended higher in 2023. Fong and De La Cruz, vice president of product design, have returned or plan to move back to California and are seeking undisclosed economic and punitive damages.
“Other individuals in similar circumstances have been forced to purchase or rent less desirable housing upon their return to California,” the lawsuit said.
Disney did not respond to an email seeking comment on Friday.
Earlier this month, Disney and DeSantis appointees of Disney World’s governing district formally ended their battle for control of the government by signing a 15-year development agreement. Under the deal, DeSantis appointees obligated the district to make infrastructure improvements in exchange for Disney investments of up to $17 billion in Disney World over the next twenty years.
