A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Walt Disney Company by two employees who relocated for a job that never happened.
Los Angeles, CATwo Walt Disney employees who were allegedly pressured to relocate from California to join a Florida office that never opened are suing the company. The California labor lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims the production designers and several others would have lost their jobs if they didn’t relocate. They are seeking damages for “a deceptive and disruptive period of their lives”.
Plaintiffs Maria De La Cruz and George Fong were asked to relocate in 2021 to its Lake Nona office in Orlando where they bought homes the following year. However, managers “made it clear” that those who declined to move would lose their jobs, the lawsuit says. They both sold their homes, which was “a particularly painful decision” for Fong, who works as a creative director of product design, because “it was the family home he had grown up in and inherited.” Their attorney said it was “impossible” for Fong, De La Cruz and other employees to find housing comparable to the homes they had sold a year earlier, mainly because mortgage rates and home prices in the Los Angeles area had increased between 2022 and 2023. It is hard to determine the exact losses the plaintiffs incurred but they were “substantial.”
Disney Parks planned on having 2,000 employees at the campus, including many in the famous Imagineering group that creates theme park rides. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Disney's decision to move the California-based Imagineering staffers drew complaints from employees, many of whom said they did not want to move to Florida. The plaintiffs’ attorney said a “significant number” of employees resigned. But 250 employees from Southern California had already moved to Florida. They were all promised affordable housing, strong schools and a new office with extensive amenities.
Disney vs. DeSantis
In July 2021, the Disney Parks’ chief told workers in California that most white-collar employees would be transferred to the new campus in Orlando to consolidate different teams and allow for greater collaboration.
In late 2021, large numbers of Disney employees resisted relocating and Disney told them to put their moving plans on hold. Plaintiffs De La Cruz and Fong sold their California homes and bought homes in Florida.
Since March 2022, Disney and DeSantis had been feuding when Bob Chapek, Disney's then-CEO, criticized Florida’s legislation that would limit discussion of gender identity and sexuality in elementary schools. Disney opposed a Florida law which bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
In June 2022 Disney leaders told the California workers that the opening of the new campus was being delayed and that they could postpone moving until 2026 but were still encouraged to relocate by 2024. The campus was slated to open in 2023 but the deal fell through with Disney citing “considerable changes” to business conditions, namely its legal battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In early 2023 DeSantis, with the help of Republicans in the Florida legislature, revamped the governing district that had been controlled by Disney supporters for over five decades and installed his own appointees to its board. DeSantis argued that "woke Disney" should not receive special treatment in the state. Disney said the move was political retaliation over what should be protected free speech and sued the state in April 2023 to have the moves reversed.
In May 2023 Reuters reported that Disney was scrapping its 2021 plan to build a nearly $1 billion corporate campus at Lake Nona.
“We truly regret the disruption you’ve all faced due to this initiative,” a Disney representative told Fong and De La Cruz in an email. The two California-based Disney workers want to make it a class action lawsuit for all impacted employees who moved to Florida from California.
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