Lead plaintiff Charlie Torres filed the lawsuit in state court in Orange County in March 2024. Torres said some workers make as little as $17.50 per hour (fast food workers at larger chains such as McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's are paid at least $20 an hour and minimum wage is $16 per hour). As well, Disney skimped on overtime and blocked workers from taking legally guaranteed lunch breaks during the work day or paying them for working through meals. And Disney failed to provide final paychecks on time for workers who were let go or quit.
According to the complaint, Disney failed to:
- provide final paychecks immediately upon involuntary termination or within 72 hours of voluntary separation
- pay final wages at the location of employment
- include all wages due in the final paychecks
- provide rest periods or meal periods to employees working at least five- hour shifts
- provide second meal periods for shifts of at least ten hours nor compensation in lieu thereof
- fully compensate Plaintiff Class for hours worked in excess of 8 hours in a day
- pay the correct overtime rate for applicable overtime hours worked.
To reiterate, Torres says that, because Disney doesn’t pay the maintenance workers a proper hourly rate, they are paid a lower overtime premium than they should be. As well, the workers are required to be on duty during meal and rest breaks but are not paid for that time in violation of state law.