Disney agrees to settle with 9 state attorney generals to drop unfair labor practices of placing employees on-call for work

Disney again caught red-handed in unfair labor practices in the U.S.
The Walt Disney Co. was among six prominent national retailers, in a multi-state probe by nine different state attorney generals offices across the country, accused of committing unfair and unscrupulous labor practices that encroached upon their workers' personal time off from work through the use of forced on-call work shifts.

The settlement affects only Disney retail stores
On-call work shifts force employees, during their own time off, to drop whatever they are doing to report to work at a moment's notice. Thus, U.S. Disney workers no longer had any time for themselves that the company couldn't infringe upon as a mandatory requirement for continuing employment.

Employees may be put on notice to report to work as late as one hour before their scheduled on-call shifts to find out if they may or may not have to report to work or even be paid out for that day.

Workers, however, are not reimbursed for any inconvenience, especially if the company determines that no work is available, which could hinder the workers' planning for childcare, take away from other potential business opportunities (such as holding down a second job), or impact other personal activities and errands they may be required to do during a worker's time off from work.


Such onerous work scheduling shifts pretty much show that companies like Disney have no regards for their employee's well-being or best interests, and proves nothing is sacred, even encroaching on their employees' personal time, outside of work.

Disney has scrooged the American worker once again
All the offending retailers have agreed under the multi-state settlements, led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, to stop imposing these burdensome and rather unscrupulous on-call work shift schedule practices on their many U.S. retail employees, many of whom do not even appear to have any labor representation.

"People should not have to keep the day open, arrange for child care, and give up other opportunities without being compensated for their time," said Schneiderman in a statement about the tentative settlement.

The new multi-state settlement covers Disney stores along with five other national retailers—Aeropostale, Pacific Sunwear, Zumiez, Carter's Inc., and David's Tea—which will impact a combined 50,000 U.S. retail employees; however, a similar deal in 2015 had previously been reached with other retailers in the same multi-state probe on the exact same issue.

News about any financial settlements to compensate Disney retail employees for inconvenience, lost time and wages, however, were not detailed in the announcement of the labor settlement from the states Attorney Generals offices involved.


Disney and the five other retailers named in the current multi-state probe were aware that the previous agreement that had been reached in 2015 between the state attorneys general and previous offending retailers, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, Pier 1 Imports, And L Brand, over the the same issue of abusing on-call work shift scheduling practices, but Disney simply decided to ignore the previous ruling and continue with business as usual in continuing to implement the same offending on-call scheduling labor practices that were condemned in the previous settlement with several state Attorney Generals offices.



Four of the companies named in the current probe who have agreed to settle—Disney, Carter's, David's Tea, and Zumiez—also conceded to give their employees advanced notice of their work schedules at least one week ahead of time in the future, according to a statement made by the New York Attorney General's office.

On-call work scheduling is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of unfair labor
practices at the Walt Disney Company. The company also refused to provide
suitable seats to most of its cast members onstage.
The Walt Disney Company, no stranger to controversies from charges of committing unfair labor practices, have been embroiled in a growing national scandal for the past few years garnering outrage from the public for terminating 250 American high-tech workers on U.S. soil and replacing them with cheap foreign guest H1-B visa workers at Walt Disney World Florida.

Disney has, to date, defiantly refused to hire back all 250 laid off American tech workers whose jobs were replaced by foreign visa holders, and has deservedly born the brunt of calls for a national boycott of all their products and services from pro-labor groups across the country as a result of the growing public outrage.

Disney is currently said to be in discussions with the Trump administration behind the scenes in an effort from the President-elect to make good on his campaign promise to end abuses in the H-1B visa program by making Disney rehire many of the displaced American tech workers laid off from 2015.


Disney has also been tied to numerous foreign Chinese toy manufacturing companies that have long-standing reputations of abusing workers, violating human rights and having poor work safety records.


Under public pressure from several International labor and civil rights watchdog groups, Disney has recently, out of fear of incurring very bad publicity, had to cut ties out with some of these unscrupulous overseas manufacturing firms, some of whom had been using child labor as young as 14 years old.


Meanwhile, in the State of California, the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California has also been pulling the wool over all it's cast members' eyes in a long-standing labor practice of making all its cast members onstage stand while doing their jobs throughout their shifts as a mandated company policy of "good show" to customers, even if providing suitable seats to their employees would not interfere with any of their job duties.

Disneyland has a long history of strained relationships with its various labor
unions over unfair labor practices
A recent decision by the California Supreme Court, Kilby v. CVS, et.al, made in April of this year, ruled that any employee (even those traditionally required to stand as part of their job requirements such as bank tellers, customer service employees, food service workers, cashiers, etc.) has the right to have a suitable seat provided to them at work by his/her employer, if the act of sitting does not interfere with one's job duties or performance.

Exceptions to this rule are not at the discretion of the employer and may not include the perception of providing better customer service by the employer in the employee's job expectations, meaning that it must be proven by the employer that an employee absolutely cannot do his job while sitting (e.g., such as in the rare cases like that of shelf stockers, walking patrolmen, marathon runners, etc.)

Despite the ruling from the State's highest court, Disney (and several other businesses in California) still force most of their cast members on the resort, especially those interacting face-to-face "onstage" with guests, to continue standing at all times while performing their job duties, including for most guest service representatives, employees working behind counters, food service workers, retail operators, cashiers, salespersons, gate operators, etc.


Disney had also previously been cited and fined by the then U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) for illegally hiring underpaid and undocumented workers at the Disneyland Resort in lieu of hiring American workers at the Disneyland Resort, an illegal labor practice under current U.S. immigration laws that Disney continues to employ to this day with impunity at the Disneyland Resort.

Illegal hiring of undocumented workers on U.S. soil undermines wages and jobs for U.S. citizens because the economic advantage of hiring illegal undocumented immigrants for far less money and without paying for required employee benefits (e.g., such as health care, sick days, pensions, etc.) clearly outweigh the detriment of getting caught, especially if companies like Disney lobbies politicians to curtail enforcement of existing immigration laws.


Disney is in no way a stranger to controversy in the realm of poor labor relations with all their hourly employees over the years.


Prominent national politicians, such as Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have previously accused the Walt Disney Company as late as this year of exploiting American workers with long working hours and low wages that keep many Americans in a vicious cycle of poverty.


Disney chairman and CEO, Bob Iger, has contemptuously scoffed at such criticisms in the past, but it appears that the California Attorney General and the State Labor Commissioner have a lot more to look into at the Walt Disney Company, regarding numerous unfair and unscrupulous labor practices.


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