Disney sued after replacing tech employees with immigrant workers

Two former Disney employees have filed class-action lawsuits against the entertainment giant, saying they were illegally replaced by foreign workers.

Both Perrero and Moore were laid off by the Disney amusement park from their technology jobs last January, and claim that Disney conspired with HCL and Cognizant to bring in foreign workers by abusing the H-1B non-immigrant work visa.

Accused of gaming the visa system, major global outsourcing companies like HCL and Cognizant are responsible for an outsized portion of H-1B visa applications, according to a separate NY Times report from November. They also said the company opened more positions than it closed, but Moore, who applied for 150 other jobs at Disney was unable to bag a single one. Employers are required to declare to the Department of Labor that hiring foreigners on the visas “will not adversely affect the working conditions of USA workers similarly employed”.

The plaintiffs, Leo Perrero and Dena Moore, were among 250 Disney tech workers laid off about a year ago. He described having to train them over a period of 90 days, the first month of which they spent just watching and recording on video and audio what the American workers did.

Cognizant replied to the Disney World lawsuit by claiming the outsourcing company “fully complies with all US regulations regarding H-1B visas”.

The defendants in the lawsuit include HCL Inc. and Cognizant Technologies.

The attorney Sara Blackwell has filed the law suit using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf the two Disney employees.

This story is complex, and we’re going to break down both sides of the work visa debate.

Ms Blackwell said the lawsuit aims to stop outsourcing companies “systemically abusing the immigration system”. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida has introduced a bill that would cut the number of visas by 15,000 a year.

“No shortage exists of American STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) workers”, said Perrero.

“In addition, we work with nationally-recognized immigration law firms to ensure that we remain current on best practices, and periodically we voluntarily engage an independent external legal advisor to audit our immigration compliance”.

“There is no excuse for this program, which was meant to be such a good program to help our American workforce to be as a substitute for American workers who are qualified to do the job”, Nelson said. He said: “I wholeheartedly believe our country needs to have wonderful people come here to build a long-term foundation”. The Company usually offers as much as $20,000, she said.

Numerous politicians have been attempting to amend the H-1B issue.