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A California judge has ruled that a class action lawsuit filed by Disneyland workers alleging that the company breaks the law in paying them less than a living wage can move forward.
An Orange County Superior Court has certified the claim, first filed in 2019, in which five resort workers say that the Walt Disney Co. violated Measure L, which requires Anaheim resort businesses that receive tax subsidies and their subcontractors to pay employees a living wage, Los Angeles Times reports.
When the workers — many employed by Disney and others employed by contractors — first filed the Disney worker lawsuit, a living wage was calculated as $15 an hour. Now, it is up to $17.
Disneyland workers have been calling for higher wages and better working conditions for years, with a February 2018 report highlighting high instances of homelessness, low wages, and food insecurity amongst Disney employees.
According to the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, which authored the report, more than 85 percent of union workers at Disneyland earned less than $15 an hour at the time of the 2018 report.
The report was issued before Measure L was approved by voters in the state. The measure requires resort businesses that receive a city subsidy to pay at least $15 an hour, with the minimum rising by $1 an hour each year until 2022, when it reaches $18. Raises will then be based on the cost-of-living index.
Attorney Randy Renick, who represents the workers in the Disney lawsuit, told Los Angeles Times that he couldn’t say how many workers were in the Class, but added that it was in the thousands.
“I think the issues here are simple: The voters demanded that companies like Disney, who take public handouts, pay their workers a living wage,” Renick said. “Disney should not get a pass.”
The Disney workers class action lawsuit accuses the city of Anaheim of using tax dollars to pay off construction bonds for the Mickey and Friends parking garage. Most of the taxes come from Disney, while the rest comes from hotel bed taxes, Los Angeles Time reports.
“All this was paid for with what Disney would have otherwise paid in taxes,” the Disney workers class action lawsuit alleges. “The money Anaheim gave Disney was raised by the issuance of municipal bonds. The bonds are repaid with and secured by Disney taxes.”
The Disney lawsuit adds that “Disney got a rebate of the best kind: it got its taxes back before it paid them.”
Disney and Anaheim both say that the parking garage agreement does not constitute a subsidy under Measure L.
“We continue to hold that the public-private partnership of the 1990s with the city and Disney does not fall under the tax rebate language of Measure L,” Anaheim city spokesman Mike Lyster told Los Angeles Time.
Do you think Disney workers should be entitled to a living wage? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
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